Portugal was able to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup after beating North Macedonia by 2-0 at Porto on Tuesday in the World Cup playoff finals. The team’s midfielder Bruno Fernandes scored a brace to help his team book their place in the quadrennial event.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo failed to score for Portugal but Fernandes feels his Manchester United teammate played a key role in helping him score both goals. Ronaldo provided a nutmeg assist to Fernandes for the first goal of the match after the latter had won the ball after a mistake from North Macedonia’s defense.

Fernandes revealed that Ronaldo creates space for other players and he played an instrumental role in the team’s win. Ronaldo is well known to score goals in big matches but he could not find the back of the net against Turkey and North Macedonia. However, Fernandes feels Ronaldo played his part with great success.

Speaking about CR7’s team play, Fernandes said: “I’m happy that he creates play, that he creates space, because many people don’t see him and say oh Cristiano doesn’t touch the ball because he wasn’t in the game, but he creates a lot of space, leaves a lot of space for other players to score goals.”

“Today my two goals, the first was his assist, the second because he got off and the center back went with him, he left me the space to be in the box alone and score the goal. People who don’t have the full picture of the pitch don’t understand that Cristiano had a part of those goals,” Fernandes added.

Ronaldo wasn’t at his usual best against North Macedonia as he should have scored with his left foot in the first half after receiving a golden chance. However, Ronaldo played a big role in Portugal’s first goal as he provided a perfect assist to Bruno Fernandes.

Ronaldo will play his fifth World Cup and has played every edition of Football’s top-level international tournament since 2006. Many experts reckon that this could well be Ronaldo’s final frontier with the national team.