Portugal, after eliminating Turkey in the World Cup play-offs, will compete with Macedonia in the early hours of next Wednesday (30) for a place in the final week. Although Portugal is highly regarded, star Cron has issued a cautionary statement, claiming that his team has not yet won anything, and urging his teammates to respect their rivals and go all out for a win. It is believed that this will be the last time for the 37-year-old Cron to participate in the final week of the World Cup, and he certainly does not want to miss the chance at the last minute, which will leave regrets in his career as a player.
In a social media post, Cron motivated his teammates: "We have taken the first step towards the great goal of reaching the final week of the 2022 World Cup, but we haven't won anything, we haven't accomplished our goal, and we have to continue to focus on our preparations with the utmost seriousness, with respect for our opponents and with confidence in our own abilities, the mighty Portugal, and head towards Qatar!
Portugal was expected to compete with Italy in the play-offs for the final week, but last year's European Cup winners were eliminated by Macedonia. Portugal's avoidance of a strong rival should have been a good thing, but Cron was worried that his teammates would take the game too lightly, allowing Macedonia to take advantage of the situation and causing Portugal to follow in Italy's footsteps.
As Cron is already 37 years old, generally believe that this session will be his last time to participate in the final week of the World Cup, but also his last chance to compete for this tournament championship, hoping to be crowned as a thousand years a king of the ball, if Portugal fails to get out of the line, surely it is a major regret of his career as a player, so it is the goal scorer more than anyone else eager to get out of the line in Portugal.
Portugal's leader Fernando Santos is confident that his team will be able to qualify for the finals: every player knows the situation, this is a final, and finals are always very difficult to play, and we have a lot of experience in finals, so I believe that we can win.
Portugal's best performance in World Cup history was a third-place finish in 1966, with Panther Eusebio in the lineup, but then it fell into a dark period, reaching the final week only once from 1970 to 1998, and then participating in the past five editions.
