Cristiano Ronaldo appeared in a jovial mood prior to Portugal's crunch tie against North Macedonia on Tuesday night. With the teams warming up earlier in the day, the Manchester United frontman poked fun at Cedric Soares for his jump technique.
The 2016 European champions have one last hurdle left in their quest to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar this winter. After beating Turkey 3-1 last week, they must now take on European minnows North Macedonia in a surprise finale.
It comes after the Lynxes sent Italy packing after a phenomenal 1-0 victory over the European champions in Sicily. It means that Roberto Mancini's men - who beat England to claim the European Championship last year - will not appear in successive World Cup tournaments for the first time in their history.
And they are not finished yet, having warned Portugal that they will be in for a hell of a final with the pressure all on the Selecao. But Ronaldo has been in high-pressure situations before and this is no different.
In fact, the 37-year-old looked so relaxed during the warm-up tonight that he even had time to mock his Portuguese team-mate Cedric. During what appeared to be a small game of headers, the Arsenal defender's jump barely reached off the ground.
And Ronaldo immediately started laughing at the 30-year-old before reenacting the right-back's attempt at a jump. For a player like Ronaldo, who can seemingly touch the heavens with every leap, it must have been bizarre to see someone so low.
Portugal are hosting North Macedonia - who are ranked 67th in the world - at Porto and this might be Ronaldo's last chance to play at the World Cup. He will be 41 before the next competition and while that might not put him off, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has told the fans tonight to welcome the Macedonians to hell.
"I urge the fans - I want hell breaking loose at Dragao [Stadium]," the Portuguese captain said. "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, also a game of our lives. They have surprised [opponents] in many games but I believe they will not surprise us."
