Bruno Fernandes scores twice as Portugal seal their place at World Cup finals

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Bruno Fernandes Scores Twice As Portugal Seal Their Place At World Cup Finals
Portugal North Macedonia WCup 2022 Soccer, © AP/Press Association Images
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By PA Sport Staff

Bruno Fernandes scored twice as Portugal sealed their place in their sixth consecutive World Cup finals with a 2-0 win over North Macedonia in Porto.

Fernandes ended the visitors’ resistance with a 32nd-minute opener after being played in by a neat bit of skill by Cristiano Ronaldo.

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From that moment on there was little danger of the North Macedonians repeating the heroics that saw them dump Italy out of the tournament with a dramatic late winner in Palermo last week.

Portugal North Macedonia WCup 2022 Soccer
Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated Portugal’s qualification (Luis Vieira/AP)

Fernandes sealed his side’s passage to Qatar in the 65th minute when he finished off a lightning counter-attack by stroking the ball past keeper Stole Dimitrievski.

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Poland joined Portugal in Qatar after securing a similarly straightforward 2-0 win over Sweden in Chorzow.

The Poles, granted a bye to the final qualifying stage following the expulsion of Russia, led through Robert Lewandowski’s 49th-minute penalty before a 74th-minute effort from Piotr Zielinski sealed the deal.

Poland Sweden WCup 2022 Soccer
Piotr Zielinski (right) sealed Poland’s place in Qatar (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)

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Sadio Mane slotted the decisive penalty to send Senegal to the finals while his Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah suffered shoot-out heartbreak for Egypt.

Mane’s spot-kick concluded a dramatic second leg in Diamniadio after Hamdi Fathi’s fourth-minute own goal hauled the hosts level following Egypt’s 1-0 win in Cairo on Friday night.

The result was a repeat of the Africa Cup of Nations final two months ago when Mane again scored the winning penalty against the same opponents.

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Senegal dominated most of the proceedings and Egypt were indebted to keeper Mohamed El Shenawy who produced a series of stunning saves to deny Pape Abdou Cisse and Ismaila Sarr in extra-time.

Salah blazed Egypt’s first penalty over the bar and after both sides contrived to miss their first four spot-kicks combined, it fell to Mane to seal his side’s passage to Qatar.

Thomas Partey’s early goal saw Ghana also qualify for the finals after a 1-1 draw with Nigeria in Abuja, which proved enough to send the Ghanaians through on the away goals rule.

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