Kevin De Bruyne’s Belgium qualify for World Cup; Bernardo Silva’s Portugal get closer

Two Manchester City players were in action with their national teams on Sunday’s World Cup Qualifying matches, and it was a successful day for Kevin De Bruyne’s Belgium and Bernardo Silva’s Portugal.

For Belgium, the job was simple: win and qualify for the World Cup. It was far from simple, though. The Belgians had a very physical affair with Greece and needed to show some fighting spirit and patience to survive Greece’s tough defense. But the goals eventually came: first it was Tottenham Hotspur’s Jan Vertonghen who scored the opener, and two minutes after a Greece equalizer it was Romelu Lukaku who got the goal that sent Belgium to the World Cup.

It wasn’t easy for Portugal either. Bernardo Silva started on the bench as his team had a very tough match away to Hungary, who needed to avoid defeat in order to stay in contention for a Playoff place. But Portugal stayed strong defensively and were able to find a goal through AC Milan striker André Silva when Bernardo was already on the pitch. In the end it was a narrow victory for Portugal, but they’ve now guaranteed a top-two finish and can still take first place from Switzerland next month.

Congrats, Kev and Bernardo! Your international duty is now over with positive results, you’re not injured, so it’s all good.