Teenage sensation Sanches came off the bench and produced a man-of-the-match performance as Portugal defied the odds to upstage Croatia 1-0 after extra time thanks to Ricardo Quaresma’s 117th-minute goal in Lens on Saturday. Cristiano Ronaldo was denied reaching Michel Platini’s record of nine goals in the European championship finals by a fine save from Danijel Subasic, and the ball fell to Quaresma to head into an empty net.
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“We knew if we beat Portugal we’d play Poland, but that’s tournaments”. But just when it looked like it was heading for another penalty shootout, Ricardo Quaresma managed to slam in a volley to clinch qualification to the quarter-finals for Portugal.
DF Ivan Strinic, 4 – None of his seven attempted crosses found the target and he was generally of little use in attack, while his lost ball high up the field enabled Portugal to launch the counter that led to the winning goal.
They will now meet Poland, conquerors of Switzerland via penalties, in the quarter-final. Okay France will play Republic of Ireland, Germany will play Slovakia and then at 20:00 Belgium will face Hungary.
After defeating Spain to win Group D, Croatia entered the favorable side of the knockout stages and were handed a game with third place qualifiers Portugal.
After 116 minutes in which the teams failed to muster a single shot on target, Ivan Perišić headed against the upright.
Croatia nearly snatched an equalizer at the death but Domagoj Vida hooked the ball agonizingly wide. Poland were dominating the first half and then six minutes before half time Poland were awarded with a goal. He didn’t bringing the stability the team needs and was not particularly good in the more creative part, either.
“They say football is the best game in the world… but sometimes it is the dumbest thing in the world”.
Shaqiri, however, came through with his remarkable equalizer, leveling the score and giving the Swiss a chance as they pressed to complete the turnaround.
Although the momentum remained with Switzerland in extra time, they could not find a way past the impressive Fabianski.
“This is not the end of this generation, we have players who are coming, but we have another problem, inadequate treatment in their own country”. “We knew that Croatia play their best football on the counterattack, that is how they won their group, and we refused to let them do that”.
“We were trying to push, trying to be aggressive”.
“We had to be patient”, said Bale, a two-time Champions League victor with Real Madrid.
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They offer plenty going forward and in defence and have a strong work ethic. “It’d be nice to play pretty but that’s not always how you win tournaments”, he told his post-match press conference. But their aggressiveness would lead to an opportunity for Portugal and with that one opportunity, they would win the game.
