Lineker risks being left red-faced after dismissive World Cup qualifying claim

The TV host made the prediction less than a year ago that North Macedonia – who are one game away from qualifying for the World Cup – would never come close to reaching the tournament

Gary Lineker risks being left embarrassed after making a dismissive claim over the nature of the World Cup qualification process.

The lengthy qualifiers draw to a close this week with the finalisation of the 32 nations who will compete in this year’s tournament in Qatar (barring Scotland’s postponed clash against Ukraine, the winners of whom will face Wales for the final slot). Two further European nations will qualify on Tuesday, as Poland take on Sweden while Portugal – Euro 2016 winners – play host to North Macedonia.

Despite being notable outsiders for the tie, North Macedonia are on a high having stunned Italy with a last-minute winner last week and they could be set for their second major finals in the space of two years – having qualified for their first ever tournament for last summer’s European Championships.

It will be a historic encounter for North Macedonia, who have never previously competed at a World Cup tournament. Their path to the final has been particularly memorable with last week’s late victory over European champions Italy coming less than a year after their stunning victory away against Germany.

That win in Germany was arguably the finest result in North Macedonia’s history and drew widespread acclaim, three months ahead of their participation in the European Championships. However, despite the upset being widely lauded – they left Lineker unimpressed, and the British TV host claimed that not only could they not qualify for the finals – but that they would not even come close.

Lineker took to social media after his initial tweet acknowledging the result, which claimed: “Good heavens, Germany have lost to North Macedonia.” That came in the aftermath of the former striker claiming that multiple European nations should go through a pre-qualification process before facing the more established nations in World Cup and European Championships qualification games.

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It was highlighted to Lineker that not only did North Macedonia beat Germany, but that came on the same night as Georgia were seconds away from getting points against Spain, Malta drawing away to Slovakia, Latvia drawing in Turkey, Cyprus moving up to four points and Luxembourg beating the Republic of Ireland. Lineker replied to this by stating: “So what? They can win a game but they can never qualify. Not even close…oh an North Macado (a misspelling of North Macedonia) is has never been ranked outside the top 80.”

The claim that North Macedonia had never been ranked outside of the top 80 in the world is also incorrect – the nation’s ranking has generally fluctuated between 60-100 in recent years, with a low of 166th in the world being reached in March 2017.

That came on 31 March 2021, and less than a year on – North Macedonia are now just one match away from reaching their first ever World Cup finals and their second major finals within the space of 18 months. Portugal will be hopeful of sparing Lineker’s blushes with a victory in Porto, but the presenter’s stance on the qualification process appears to have already been successfully dismantled.