Man City ace Bernardo: I apologise to Portugal fans; it was terrible | OneFootball

Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva has apologised to Portugal fans after their shock World Cup qualifying defeat to Serbia.

Cristiano Ronaldo and co needed just a point to reach next winter's finals in Qatar and got off to the perfect start through Renato Sanches' second-minute goal, but Dusan Tadic levelled Sunday's winner-takes-all qualifier to create nerves in Lisbon.

Portugal thought they had done enough to earn World Cup qualification but Aleksandar Mitrovic headed home a 90th-minute winner to send Serbia through to the World Cup at the expense of the hosts - who now drop into March's play-offs.

"It was a bad game for Portugal," Bernardo claimed after the game. "We managed to score the goal early but from then on we stopped playing. I cannot find a great explanation for this, words fail me.

"It was terrible, we have to do much better because we have a play-off in March and we will do our best to qualify. But at home, with 65,000 fans, we had to do much better.

"I apologise to the Portuguese (fans) who watched a game they shouldn't have watched. The plan was to try to have the ball, we were completely dominated by Serbia. With the quality of our players this is hardly admissible.

"I played a little bit limited, I tried to give my best until the moment came when I thought that another player would be in better conditions."