Switzerland were much improved after the break with Shaqiri heavily involved, first getting in behind the Poland defence and then testing Fabianski with a stinging shot from distance.
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Adam Nawalka’s team will fancy their chances of booking a spot in the quarter-finals and Sevilla midfielder Krychowiak says he won’t allow rumours about his future to distract him. But unfortunately we made mistakes and paid for that.
“We dragged it out of their hands”.
It is the first time Poland have reached the last eight of a European Championship, and they will face the winners of Saturday evening’s game between Croatia and Portugal. It was lovely. But in the end I am disappointed.
“I think Granit is very professional and he can cope with it”, said Shaqiri.
“This is football, we need to take a step back sometimes to take two steps forwards”. It will be the first time Wales will contest a quarterfinal match since the 1958 World Cup.
The Bayern Munich hitman, who top-scored in qualifying for his national team with 13 goals, has yet to get off the mark in France during his four outings to date.
The Swiss had several chances in the match at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, but poor finishing again let them down. They could have been 1-0 up in the very first minute as a defensive lapse by Johan Djourou, who nearly sent a short pass back to goalkeeper Yann Sommer straight into the path of Lewandowski but after the goalkeeper’s clearance, Milik blasted over the post. Robert Lewandowski intercepted a poor back-pass to force a save and Arkadiusz Milik ballooned the follow-up over an open goal.
Poland’s Artur Jedrzejczyk celebrates after Grzegorz Krychowiak scores to win the penalty shootout against Switzerland.
Swiss Goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who also plays for Moenchengladbach, said that Poland is a hard opponent.
The opening minute of the game between Switzerland and Poland saw a great chance fall to Poland forward Milik.
The Swiss grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck as they hunted a second-half equaliser.
Shaqiri fired the first warning to the Poles when he forced Polish goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski into a fine save after cutting inside and whipping in an effort from the edge of the box shortly after the restart.
Chasing the game and in a bid to boost their attacking options, Swiss coach Vladimir Petkovic switched to two strikers for the last 30 minutes.
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Schar escaped with a yellow card following a late and heavy challenge on Lewandowski as the match became fractious, but Switzerland did show signs of life in attack following the introduction of youngster Breel Embolo in place of Dzemaili.
