“There have been cases, in the past, where players, who are the star players of their team, got frustrated and when things didn’t go their way, they didn’t care”.
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Wales’ forward Gareth Bale holds his daughter Alba Viola following his team’s win against Northern Ireland. While Switzerland emerged victorious at the end of the that historical encounter, they were denied the history of making it to the tournament’s quarter-finals for the first time thanks to a “horror” spot kick by Granit Xhaka.
The quarterfinal lineup at the European Championship started to take shape on Saturday after three drab matches that will live forever in the record books but not in the memory.
Northern Ireland appeared the more risky, though, as Stuart Dallas had a fine effort palmed round the post by Wayne Hennessey while Jamie Ward also called the Wales keeper into action with a ferocious rising shot from 25 yards out that was tipped over.
Poland: Lukasz Fabianski, Lukasz Piszczek, Kamil Glik, Michal Pazdan, Artur Jedrzejczyk, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Krzysztof Maczynski, Kamil Grosicki, Arkadiusz Milik, Robert Lewandowski.
Robert Lewandowski is the ultimate team player but Poland will not survive at Euro 2016 unless their captain rediscovers his ruthless streak.
While the opening period of extra time passed without incident, the momentum was firmly behind Switzerland and Poland were forced on the back foot, with Fabianski producing another fantastic save to deny an Eren Derdiyok header after the break.
Galvanised by the goal, Switzerland took the upper hand and dominated extra time, forcing several desperate clearances by a defence which had conceded in only one other match in 2016.
Xherdan Shaqiri scored with a bicycle kick, jumping with his back to the net before sending a left-footed shot inside the post from near the edge of the area. A layoff for Shaqiri seemed to sit up too high for the midfielder to have a shot, but he produced the goal of the tournament with an acrobatic overhead volley that flew into the bottom corner. Poland as a whole have struggled to score goals this tournament, and Jakub Blaszczykowski is their leading scorer with a massive haul of two goals.
The winning kick by Krychowiak sparked scenes of jubilation among Poland’s large travelling support in Saint-Etienne.
The £30million Arsenal signing blazed over Switzerland’s second spot-kick as they were knocked out of Euro 2016 at the last-16 stage by Poland earlier today.
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Swiss coach Vladimir Petkovic said he felt for Xhaka, but the defeat hurt more. A Switzerland corner was whipped in from the far side, finding Fabian Schar in space. Neither he nor replacement Breel Embolo has scored so far at the tournament. “We’re among the top eight teams in Europe”, he said.
