Giants Italy, Portugal in crunch time

PORTO • The World Cup hopes of the last two European champions are on a knife edge with Portugal and Italy on a collision course in decisive qualifying play-offs over the next week.

A potential clash in Porto between the Euro 2016 winners, captained by Cristiano Ronaldo, and an Italy team who succeeded them as continental champions last year is a mouth-watering prospect.

However, both must first come through semi-finals today that are far from foregone conclusions, with Portugal hosting Turkey and Italy facing North Macedonia.

Failure to reach this year's World Cup would be a catastrophe for the Azzurri, who had reached every tournament since 1958 until missing out in 2018, when they lost a play-off to Sweden.

It would be all the more remarkable given that they bounced back from that failure to win Euro 2020 under Roberto Mancini, while setting a world-record 37-game unbeaten run until they lost to Spain in the Nations League semi-finals last October.

Yet four draws in their last five World Cup qualifiers last autumn saw them finish second in their group to Switzerland, and now they must come through these two one-off ties to secure a place in the April 1 draw in Doha.

"Our goal is to win the World Cup, and to win the World Cup we have to win these two matches. There's nothing else to say," Mancini said.

North Macedonia are the underdogs, but they know Italy well, having held them to a damaging draw in Turin in qualifying for the last World Cup, and also beat Germany away in a qualifier last year.

"We are not going to Italy as tourists, but to outplay (them) and to win," said coach Blagoja Milevski, aiming to take the team, off the back of their first major football appearance at Euro 2020, to their first World Cup.

Portugal skipper Ronaldo will be 41 come 2026, so Qatar surely represents his last chance to win the World Cup. Missing out altogether is unthinkable for the all-time top scorer in international football with 115 goals.

"We know the road will not be easy and we have full respect for our opponents. But together we will fight to take Portugal where we belong," he posted on Instagram this week.

Portugal must beat Turkey in Porto to reach the play-off final, in which they would have home advantage.

However, their two first-choice centre-backs have been ruled out - Manchester City's Ruben Dias is injured while Porto's Pepe tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.

Three World Cup berths from Europe remain up for grabs, with 10 teams, led by holders France, having already qualified. The play-offs were meant to feature 12 teams, split into three separate paths, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine has affected the permutations.

The Russians have been kicked out and their opponents, Poland, have been given a walkover to a final play-off against either Sweden or the Czech Republic, who meet in Solna today.

Ukraine were due to face Scotland in Glasgow, but that match has been postponed until June, meaning the victors of today's clash between Wales and Austria in Cardiff will also have to wait three months before knowing their final opponents.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE