Croatia’s late pressure gave Portugal the counter attack they needed, though, and after Danijel Subasic saved Cristiano Ronaldo’s first shot of the game, Ricardo Quaresma stepped up to head in the game victor with just three minutes to play.
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Croatia came close to taking the lead prior to Portugal’s goal but Ivan Perisic header hit the post. Ronaldo’s old friend Ricardo Quaresma applied the finishing touch after the Real Madrid star’s initial effort, Portugal’s first on target, was parried by Danijel Subasic into the Besiktas winger’s path for a simple finish to snatch a 1-0 win on Saturday.
They face Poland in the quarters, and if they reach the last four they will only have to overcome Wales, Belgium or Hungary for a place in the final.
Portugal relied on one, late, moment of class to grab their first victory at Euro 2016 and move into the last eight with a 1-0 win over Croatia despite failing to hit the target for nearly two hours and struggling to build any cohesive attacks.
Santos, though, did think his side could have done better, especially by “passing the ball faster” but says that the team found that hard because “Croatia didn’t let us play” which was a testament to them. “It’d be nice to play pretty but that’s not always how you win tournaments”.
In a tense affair seemingly destined to head towards penalties, Portugal came alive with just three minutes left in extra-time to claim a 1-0 win over Croatia in Lens.
The match had been labeled as one of the ties of the round, but it didn’t really take off until both sides were staring at the prospect of a penalty shootout.
“They say football is the best game in the world. but sometimes it is the dumbest thing in the world”.
Santos praised Croatia’s desire to play their brand of football, even if it ultimately proved unsuccessful. Despite all the world class ability, this match would be boring and insipid, and the two teams failed to register a shot on target in 90 minutes of action – the first time that has ever happened at the Euros. Ronaldo passed to Renato Sanches who drove deep into the Croatian half and passed to Nani.
After a goalless 90 minutes Rakitic and co. kept their energy into extra time only for Portugal to snatch a 117th minute victor against the run of play. They kept us far from the goal and they scored on the counter because we were trying to score until the end.
Portugal was a harsh reward for Group D winners Croatia.
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We were more aggressive and tried to score but they were disciplined, scored after 117 minutes and I can only congratulate them. “Of course I am really sad, we had a great chance, the draw was flawless for us”, he added.
