The goal was Blaszczykowski’s second in as many matches and he nearly added further to his tally after cutting inside and unleashing a shot from 20 yards eight minutes into the second half, with Sommer able to push the ball out for a corner.
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Xherdan Shaqiri’s spectacular second-half bicycle kick levelled for Switzerland and with the scores 1-1 after extra time, the clash at Saint-Etienne’s Stade Geoffrey Guichard went into penalties.
Poland will now face either Croatia or Portugal – who were playing later Saturday -in Marseille on Thursday.
Meanwhile; Switzerland also finished in second place in Group A, having drawn against Romania (1-1) and France (0-0), after defeating Albania 1-0 in their opening European Championship fixture.
Johan Djourou nearly gifted Poland a goal inside the first minute when his lazy backpass allowed Robert Lewandowski to put Yann Sommer under pressure.
Both teams cancelled each other out in extra time and had to settle for a penalty shootout.
Poland opened the scoring on 39 minutes and taking a deserved lead into the break. He is giving space and creating chances. After goals in regulation from Jakub Blaszczykowski and Xherdan Shaqiri, Granit Xhaka’s poor penalty miss was the difference between the two sides.
Swiss coach Petkovic is expected to hand Manchester United and Chelsea target Embolo another start in Saint-Etienne.
The wonder-strike has set the benchmark for the goal of Euro 2016.
Only one team went into extra time with the desire of winning the match, and it was Switzerland.
Xhaka impressed throughout the tournament with his immaculate passing and cool elegance in possession but the usually unflappable player lost his nerve in the shootout and sent a dismal effort wide of the goal.
He proved to be the only one to miss from the penalty spot after the two sides had played out a 1-1 draw, meaning the Swiss exited the competition at the last sixteen stage.
Switzerland continued to look the most menacing and had a great chance to win it, but Fabianski performed a desperate save one-on-one as Derdiyok got his head to an inspired Shaqiri pass. “If we play to our potential on Saturday we’ll be a very hard opponent for Poland”.
A good chance for Switzerland in the 10th minute when Shaqiri drove down the left wing and crossed the ball low into the box but the shot hit the side netting.
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It is the first time Poland have reached the quarter-finals of a major tournament since the 1982 World Cup.
