Manchester United playmaker Bruno Fernandes sent Portugal through to World Cup 2022 with a brace against North Macedonia last night.
To open the scoring, Bruno latched onto a pass from Cristiano Ronaldo before firing home.
He completed the job just past the hour mark to ensure that although they made it hard for themselves, Portugal will be in Qatar this winter.
Former United captain Roy Keane was on punditry duty for ITV’s highlights package and hailed Fernandes after his decisive contribution.
“You couldn’t imagine the World Cup without not just Ronaldo but the other quality players Portugal have. They showed their quality again, particularly the goals,” said Keane.
“Brilliant goals from a brilliant player. The second goal; the quality of the ball in and then we know Fernandes has goals in his make-up, in his locker. Great.
“Two fantastic goals. The second one, brilliant, brilliant. You can’t take qualifying for World Cups for granted.
“It’s good news for United. If they hadn’t qualified… I think that (the World Cup) was motivating Ronaldo a lot to keep going for next season.”
Bruno and Ronaldo will be gracing the greatest stage of them all at the end of the year, and Diogo Dalot now has a chance to live out the World Cup dream he recently discussed.
Ronaldo still has not won the World Cup and that will be a huge motivation going into what looks like being his last chance to lift it.
With Bruno in this form, Portugal will be a force to be reckoned with and it is to be hoped that he takes that confidence into United’s vital run of games between now and the end of the season.
The draw for the tournament takes place on Friday, where Portugal will learn their group stage opponents, along with many of United’s other international stars.
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