Portugal dream of World Cup alive 

Football legend Cristiano Ronaldo's dream of a World Cup swan song in Qatar remains alive, but only after Portugal survived the late drama of a missed penalty by Turkey's Burak Yilmaz in a tense 3-1 Path C playoff semifinal victory in Porto.

Portugal are developing a habit of making life difficult for themselves, having blown automatic qualification for Qatar 2022 by conceding a 90th-minute goal in a 2-1 defeat against Serbia in Lisbon last November.

And the 2016 European champions face another nerve-shredding encounter with North Macedonia back here at Estadio do Dragao on Tuesday in a win-or-bust tie for a place in the World Cup.

Think North Macedonia will be easy? Ask Italy, who will now miss a second consecutive World Cup after losing 1-0 to the rank outsiders in Palermo on Thursday.

But while Matheus Nunes' goal, four minutes into stoppage time, confirmed Portugal's win and made the scoreline appear more comfortable than it actually was, Fernando Santos' team will face North Macedonia with the belief that it can get the job done because it is now a group of players who can win regardless of whether Ronaldo makes the crucial contribution, as he has done so often since winning the first of his 185 caps in 2003.

Perhaps for the first time since the early days of Ronaldo's record-breaking international career, his country's fate no longer rests heavily on the Manchester United forward's shoulders.

Portugal made it through to their date with World Cup destiny without Ronaldo adding to his world-record tally of 115 international goals.

The 37-year-old played his part, but it was FC Porto forward Otavio and Liverpool's Diogo Jota who scored the goals, prior to Burak Yilmaz's 65th-minute strike for Turkey, that set them on the way to victory before a late wobble, when Yilmaz sent his penalty over the crossbar after a VAR check identified a Jose Fonte foul on Enes Unal.