Ivan Perisic had hit the post with a header before Portugal broke and Quaresma nodded in after Danijel Subasic did brilliantly to keep out a Cristiano Ronaldo effort.
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Croatia nearly snatched an equalizer at the death but Domagoj Vida hooked the ball agonizingly wide.
The last-16 match between Portugal and Croatia at the Uefa European Championship was underwhelming to say the least.
Croatia’s first effort was Ivan Perisic’s 30th-minute shot, which he dragged wide of the goal.
Croatia upped the pace in the second period having enjoyed a day’s more rest than Portugal.
For once, Croatia’s red-and-white checkerboard shirts were more suited to a chess match than soccer.
There was a general sense of annoyance at the way Portugal approached the game, however, but Santos feels that his side did what they had to in order to win a very tough game.
That, in short, is the game that many teams have brought to France this month.
Neither side aimed a shot or header on target until extra time, and the match only sparked into life in the closing minutes.
Croatia still looked livelier and Vida was frustrated again as he headed another corner just over with Portugal keeper Rui Patricio stranded after coming out for the cross.
Ronaldo was kept extremely quiet for most of a tiresome encounter which became the first match in European Championship history where neither team managed a shot on target during the regulation 90 minutes.
Portugal next face Poland in the quarter-finals in Marseille, while a mouthwatering clash with Madrid teammate Gareth Bale and Wales or Belgium, should they see off Hungary, is likely to await the winners in the semis.
“Everything was ideal apart form the fact we didn’t score”.
“We know very well what our philosophy is”, Fonte said.
We dominated the game but we didn’t score.
Substitute Ricardo Quaresma scored the sole goal in the match in the 117th minute with Portugal’s only serious attack.
However, that would not even be Ronaldo’s most important goal, let alone equalizer. His sustained success over the soccer landscape for the past decade apparently not enough, Ronaldo had endured some criticism for his seemingly absent performances in the early stages of group play.
“We played great the whole tournament, I can’t believe we have to go home”. “The draw was ideal for us, we knew if we beat Portugal we had an open path”.
Portugal remains the only team at the tournament to have qualified by drawing all matches at the knock out stage only to luckily progress by a dying minute goal against Croatia.
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Both sides settled for the stalemate to take the game into extra-time.
