Italy missed out on the World Cup finals again after losing 1-0 at home to North Macedonia in their playoff semi-final as Aleksandar Trajkovski’s added-time strike earned the visitors a famous win. The European champions did not qualify for the World Cup four years ago, their first failure to reach soccer’s global showpiece tournament since 1958, but they dominated from the off in Palermo and looked on course for victory. The hosts became more desperate in their search for a winner after the break as chances continued to come and go before, in stoppage time, Trajkovski arrowed in a stunning winner to spark wild North Macedonian celebrations. Roberto Mancini’s Italy side had 32 efforts at goal in the match, but somehow fell short, with North Macedonia going on to play Portugal in the playoff final next week for a place in the Qatar World Cup which will not involve Italy. Portugal moved one step closer to reaching the World Cup with a 3-1 win over Turkey, whose striker Burak Yilmaz skied a penalty five minutes from full-time that would have drawn the sides level. Roared on by a sold-out Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal dominated the game from the start and went 2-0 up in the first half after Otavio scored one goal and created another for Diogo Jota. But Fernando Santos’s side were pegged back by a Yilmaz goal in 65th minute that put the Portuguese fans on the edge of their seats as Turkey started to threaten. José Fonte then fouled Enes Unal inside the area in the 85th minute to concede a penalty given by VAR but Yilmaz fired it high over the bar. The Portugal substitute Matheus Nunes relieved the pressure on the hosts in added time with their third goal from a counterattack. The Sweden substitute Robin Quaison struck in the second half of extra time to secure a 1-0 win over the Czech Republic and set up a clash away to Poland next Tuesday with a place at the World Cup finals in Qatar up for grabs. The Czechs had an early goal ruled out for a foul and the Swedes had the lion’s share of possession for most of the playoff semi-final, but the two sides struggled to break each other down in a game full of tough tackling and wayward passing. The substitute Mattias Svanberg went closest for the Swedes in normal time, but his header from Emil Forsberg’s corner was aimed straight at the visiting goalkeeper, Tomas Vaclik. The game finished scoreless after 90 minutes and appeared to be heading for penalties when Quaison danced through the middle of the defence before exchanging passes with Alexander Isak and coolly slotting home to move his side a step closer to Qatar.