Portugal v North Macedonia: how to watch in the UK, TV coverage, date, kick-off, team news

North Macedonia, a team ranked 67th in the world, will travel to play Portugal with the hope of qualifying for the World Cup for the first time, after shocking Italy in the semi-finals.

The Euro 2020 winners were stunned in a 1-0 defeat by North Macedonia last week.

Aleksandar Trajkovski scored in the 92nd minute of the match to secure his country’s passage through to the next stage of the World Cup qualification stage.

Meanwhile, Italy were left shell-shocked after failing to make it through to a World Cup for the second consecutive time.

North Macedonia must beat upcoming opponents Portugal if they are to make it through to the FIFA World Cup tournament later this year in Qatar.

The side has seen phenomenal success this year - beating Germany 2-1 in World Cup qualifying in March 2021 and played at their first major tournament - the rescheduled Euro 2020.

Blagoja Milevski replaced Ivor Angelovski as manager after Euro 2020 and has lost just one of his eight games in charge.

Meanwhile, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo will be desperate to perform well as this is likely to be the Manchester United forward’s last opportunity to feature at a major tournament.

The 37-year-old has said to fans: “I urge the fans - I want hell breaking loose at Dragao (Stadium).

“I went to bed last night thinking that I want the stadium to shut down the music for our national anthem and let the fans sing it acapella to show our passion, our strength and union around the objective of reaching the World Cup.

“For us, this game is a matter of life and death. There is a responsibility to win this game. For us, it is also a game of our lives. They have surprised (opponents) in many games but I believe they will not surprise us.”

Milevksi has said, however, “We won against one of the best teams in the World. We won’t stop here. We have one last step to get to the World Cup.

“We are well on our way to confirming why we are among the top 20 teams in Europe.”

Here is all you need to know ahead of Portugal’s fixture against North Macedonia…

When is Portugal v North Macedonia?

Portugal will play North Macedonia on Tuesday 29 March 2022. Kick off is at 19:45 GMT.

Where are Portugal and North Macedonia playing?

North Macedonia will travel to the Estadio do Dragao in Porto.

How to watch Portugal v North Macedonia

Sky Sports will have the rights for this World Cup qualifying match. The match will be available on Sky Sports Action and coverage will begin at 19:40.

Those who subscribe to Sky Sports will also be able to live stream the match through SkyGo.

Sky Sports subscriptions cost around £40/month.

What is the team news?

Pepe has returned to the Portuguese training camp after missing his country’s 3-1 win over Turkey due to testing positive for Covid-19.

Joao Cancelo will likely replace Diogo Dalot in the starting lineup as he comes back from suspension.

Otavio will likely partner Ronaldo and Diogo Jota in attack while Jose Fonte will join Pepe in defence.

North Macedonia’s Eljif Elmas and Tihomir Kostadinov are both back from suspension but they may very well choose to play safe and pick the same team that produced such a historic win over Italy.

Who is likely to win?

The teams have met just once before with the result being a draw.

Portugal will look the more likely team to win but after Thursday’s shock and North Macedonia’s recent successes, it would be foolish to rule out another surprise result.