MY ACCOUNT
Bernardo Silva acknowledged the pressure on Portugal to qualify for the World Cup but assured his side can cope with the challenge of making Qatar.
Portugal overcame Turkey 3-1 in the play-off semi-final on Thursday, when Roberto Mancini’s Italy crashed out to North Macedonia as Aleksandar Trajkovski scored a 92nd-minute winner in Palermo.
Fernando Santos’ side boast home advantage in the final at Porto’s Dragao Stadium as the Euro 2016 winners aim to qualify for a sixth straight World Cup, having previously failed to appear at three consecutive tournaments between 1990 and 1998.
Manchester City star Silva insisted that Portugal players will call upon their club experiences to deal with the expectations on them against North Macedonia on Tuesday.
“The responsibility of being present at the World Cup means that, regardless of the opponent, we have this pressure,” Silva told reporters at Sunday’s pre-match news conference.
“The pressure exists in that sense, and we accept it, and it would be the same against Italy, [North] Macedonia or anyone else. We are used to pressure at our clubs.
“Of course, having players with experience in decisive games helps. But the fact that North Macedonia haven’t played as many games like these also makes their motivation levels higher.”
North Macedonia are eyeing a first World Cup in their 27-year history, having qualified for Euro 2020 last year, and Silva knows Blagoja Milevski’s team will by no means be pushovers.
“North Macedonia have won four of their last five away games, two of them against two of the best teams in the world [Germany, a 2-1 win in March 2021, and Italy],” he added.
“Let’s do our homework, see what the coach’s plan is and try to follow it in the best way, knowing that teams are different and will demand different things.
“We are a team that creates many chances. We also know that we need to control the counter-attacks, and the best way to do that is by moving the ball well.
“We know that we have a difficult task ahead of us, but we will do our best to overcome an opponent that we know will create some difficulties. It’s 90 minutes, anything can happen, and we’re sure it will be very difficult.
“We need to go to the game with the same idea and all rowing in the same direction. I’m sure things will go well.”
Fellow midfielder Joao Moutinho echoed Silva’s sentiments, though he admitted Portugal expected to contend with Italy for a place at the 2022 edition of FIFA’s showpiece event.
“I won’t lie to you: we were all expecting it was going to be Italy,” Moutinho told reporters.
“Football is different nowadays, every team can win at this level; it doesn’t matter the names, numbers or stats. North Macedonia have an extraordinary core and will do their best to make our life miserable on Tuesday.”
