Aleksandar Mitrovic’s late winner saw Serbia seal its spot at the Qatar 2022 World Cup after a stunning 2-1 victory against Portugal at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon.
Portugal started with Diogo Jota in attack, supported by Cristiano Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva on the flanks, while Serbia had the in-form Dusan Vlahovic up front with Dusan Tadic supporting.
Portugal went ahead after just two minutes as Bernardo Silva capitalised on a defensive error to set up Renato Sanches, who opened the scoring with powerful shot that beat goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic.
Vlahovic thought he had equalised 10 minutes later as he struck towards the bottom-right corner, but his left-footed effort bounced off the post and away from danger.
Serbia drew level in the 33rd minute when Tadic’s fierce strike from the edge of the area took a deflection, causing Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio to fumble the ball into his own net.
The hosts came within inches of reclaiming the lead in the second half as Sanches’ blocked effort was cleared against Rajkovic’s back and rolled just wide.
However, Substitute Mitrovic completed a dramatic turnaround in the 90th minute as he headed in from Tadic’s cross to send Serbia top of Group A and condemn Portugal to the playoffs.
Mitrovic capped off a sensational World Cup qualifying campaign with his eighth goal in the most dramatic of circumstances against Portugal.
It looked as if Portugal would successfully clinch the point they needed, but ultimately Portugal paid the price for their complacency.
The defeat ended Portugal’s winning run in home World Cup qualifiers which had stretched back to October 2013.
It had looked like being a long night for the visitors after they fell behind inside just two minutes. However, Serbia did not let their heads drop as they showed great character and resilience to get back into the game and grab the winner.
Serbia tops Group A with 20 points from 8 games, while Portugal are in second place with 17 points.
UEFA World Cup qualification results
Luxembourg 0-3 Republic of Ireland
Portugal 1-2 Serbia
Greece 1-1 Kosovo
Spain 1-0 Sweden
Croatia 1-0 Russia
Malta 0-6 Slovakia
Slovenia 2-1 Cyprus
Armenia 1-4 Germany
Liechtenstein 0-2 Romania
North Macedonia 3-1 Iceland
