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29th March 2022
12:55pm BST
North Macedonia shocked the world as they beat current holders of the European Championships, Italy, with a 92nd minute winner to set up a tie against Portugal.
Should they defy the odds and beat Cristiano Ronaldo and co, it will be the first time they have ever reached a World Cup finals tournament and will come straight off the back of their first appearance at the Euros.
As reported by Reuters, over 50,000 tickets have been sold for the game in Porto as Portuguese fans confidently expected their nation to secure a place in Qatar.
The North Macedonian PM, Dimitar Kovacevski, is known for doing whatever it takes to motivate his team to succeed.
Before his nation's inaugural Euros appearance, he visited the Vatican to see Pope Francis, where he prayed for North Macedonia to win and even boarded the plane on Sunday to wish the players good luck.
Ahead of the game on Tuesday night, Manchester City playmaker and Portugal international Bernardo Silva admitted that they will be coming up against an opponent they have little information about.
"To be honest, we don't really know what to expect next Tuesday," Silva said during a press conference before stating that North Macedonia's different styles of play make it hard to opponents prepare.
Macedonia coach Blagoja Milevski explained why they take that approach before his side's historic win against Italy and said that they deserve to be where they are on merit.
"Every game is unique, so anything can happen. I don’t have any specific pattern I like to follow," he said.
"Of course, we are not at the same level as Italy yet but we're not here as a fluke and we expect to put in a great performance. I want my players to go out there and enjoy themselves."
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