Portugal put faith in Ronaldo the old guard to carry them to Qatar Football World Cup

Portugal put faith in Ronaldo the old guard to carry them to Qatar Football World Cup Fernando Santos continues to rely on those who have been successful in the past. It seems a rather dramatic scenario this far away from a Qatar Football World Cup, yet we already know that both Portugal and Italy can't qualify, and Fernando Santos is going to continue to place his trust in Cristiano Ronaldo and the old guard to carry the team to Qatar.

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Ronaldo's form at the club level has been far from exceptional, despite a recent hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur, however, he has been named in the squad to face Turkey in the play-off match. The 36-year-old Ronaldo and his Portugal side are in this position after a shock home loss to Serbia in the final group-stage match. That result allowed Serbia to overtake them for first place, leaving them in second place and relegating them to the playoff.

That's after Ronaldo had essentially guaranteed before the match that Portugal would make the FIFA World Cup. If Portugal can't survive both playoff knockout matches played in late March, Portugal would miss out on the Football World Cup for the first time since 1998.

"We want to be in the World Cup, that is our goal," Santos declared at a press conference on Thursday.

"There isn't much else to talk about, this is the moment to win. Everything else is less important."

This interview came after Santos named his squad to face Turkey, with 25 players summoned to join up with the group. Ronaldo will be joined by Joao Felix, Goncalo Guedes, and Bernardo Silva, who have all

had varying degrees of success at the domestic level this term. A victory over Turkey for the Euro 2016 winners will set up a do-or-die clash with either Italy or North Macedonia.

Cristiano Ronaldo is set to compete at his fifth FIFA World Cup this year after helping Portugal Football team beat North Macedonia in a qualifying playoff. Ronaldo assisted Bruno Fernandes for the opener in Porto, before his Manchester United teammate scored again to wrap up a 2-0 win.

Portugal Football world cup team went into the match as big favorites then will have been wary of North Macedonia's ability to cause a shock after they beat Italy 1-0 in last week's semi-final. But nothing other than a Portugal win looked at all likely after Fernandes opened the scoring on 32 minutes.

Fernandes intercepted a wayward square pass and played a one-two with Ronaldo before slotting a low shot past keeper Stole Dimitrievski. Dimitrievski has beaten again 20 minutes into the second half when Fernandes finished off a fine counter-attack with a sweet volley.

North Macedonia was unable to register a single shot on target as Portugal looked good value for their victory. Ronaldo and Co can now look ahead to the World Cup draw on April 1. Qatar 2022 will be Ronaldo's fifth appearance at a FIFA World Cup. Ronaldo has scored at each of the last four Football World Cups, but Portugal has not reached the quarter-finals since his first in 2006. t's a tough task for the Selecao and, despite Ronaldo being their top player for such a long time, and still being adored by supporters, there has been a discussion for some time now over whether the national side would be better off without him starting. For more know about Spain Vs Germany Tickets Click Here.

"It's almost like a political problem, something that will require a summit to achieve an agreement on the strategy to prepare Ronaldo's retirement from the national team," supposed Mais Futebol's Sergio Pires.

"I find it controversial to state that a team performs better without its best player, particularly when you don't have a big track record of games played in these circumstances."

Although Portugal may not have lost a game without him in the team since 2014, he did miss their 4-1 victory over Croatia in the Nations League, which was described as the best performance from head coach Fernando Santos' team since he took charge.

There are several top players on the Portugal side at the moment, like Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix, and Diogo Jota. There is a feeling, therefore, that when Ronaldo plays it takes away from other players in the side, as they feel they have to always feed him the ball rather than do exactly what they want to.

"It is different when Cristiano plays," one source close to the squad has been reported by the Daily Mail as saying.

"Cristiano is an important player, but the players all want to play for him and all are conscious they have to pass the ball in for him.

"We have a saying here that 'the team is Ronaldo plus 10'. The team is more relaxed without him. The team is better without him."

"If we don't manage to reach our goal it would go down in history, that's indisputable," he added.

We're convinced that together we will achieve the objective. We're not worried about predictions, what matters is the present. Ruben Dias, Renato Sanches, and Nelson Semedo all remain out through injury, whilst Palhinha, Joao Mario, and Rafa Silva have all been overlooked by the former Greece coach.

Portugal's full squad list Goalkeepers: Anthony Lopes, Diogo Costa and Rui PatrIcio.

Defenders: Cedric Soares, Gonçalo Inacio, Raphael Guerreiro, Diogo Dalot, Joao Cancelo, Jose Fonte, Pepe, Nuno Mendes.

Midfielders: Otavio, Danilo Pereira, Ruben Neves, William Carvalho, Bruno Fernandes, Joao Moutinho, Matheus Nunes and Bernardo Silva.

Forwards: Goncalo Guedes, Andre Silva, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diogo Jota, Joao Felix and Rafael Leao.

How many people watch the World Cup? That average is less than the previous two World Cup Finals. In 2010 in South Africa, an average of 531 viewers watched Spain defeat the Netherlands in extra time. Four years later, Argentina and Germany played to a TV crowd of roughly 562 million people across the globe.

The biggest competitor in terms of viewership is the Tour de France. People dispute which competition pulls in more viewers, but looking at the list of each country’s most-watched television broadcasts, there is one constant. Several major countries, including France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Brazil have heavy doses of the FIFA World Cup. We are offering FIFA World Cup Tickets football admirers can get World Cup Tickets through our trusted online ticketing marketplace. Worldwide tickets and hospitality are the most reliable source to book Football World Cup tickets. Sign up for the latest Tickets alert.