Bernardo Silva has apologised for Portugal's performance against Serbia that saw them drop into the World Cup qualifying play-offs - and he has sent a concerning message to Manchester City over his own 'limited' contribution in the match.
A doubt before the game after missing the previous draw with Ireland due to 'muscle complaints', Bernardo returned and assisted Renato Sanches to open the scoring within three minutes. However, Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio let a deflected Dusan Tadic effort through his hands, and Aleksandar Mitrovic headed in a dramatic late winner for the Serbs in the last minute.
The result saw Serbia overtake Portugal in Group A in the final round of qualifiers and automatically reach the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Portugal must now contest the play-offs in March to secure their place, meaning Bernardo and City teammates Joao Cancelo and Ruben Dias are at risk of failing to qualify for the World Cup.
Speaking after the game, Bernardo held his hands up and admitted that his side's performance was not acceptable in front of a packed crowd at Lisbon's Estadio da Luz.
"It was a bad game for Portugal," he said. "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."
And more worryingly for City, Bernardo admitted he was not up to full match fitness, and that he asked to be substituted when he made way for Bruno Fernandes on 63 minutes.
"I played a little bit limited," he said.
"I tried to give my best until the moment came when I thought that another player would be in better conditions."
Elsewhere, Aymeric Laporte played the full game and Rodri came off the bench as Spain ensured they would qualify automatically in their own winner-takes-all fixture with Sweden, while Ilkay Gundogan scored twice as Germany finished their campaign on a high, beating Armenia 4-1.
