Ronaldo was one of Portugal’s five penalty takers, who all converted their spot-kicks, in the shootout that saw Poland being eliminated from the tournament, with Jakub Blaszczykowski’s strike being saved.
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Portugal have taken advantage of Euro 2016’s expanded format by reaching the final four – even though they have not won a match in normal time.
Poland striker Robert Lewandowski scored within two minutes of kickoff in the Euro 2016 quarter-final against Portugal but 18-year-old Renato Sanches equalised for Portugal to leave the match poised at 1-1 at half-time.
A battling Poland had made it tough for his team, said Ronaldo, but Portugal had kept their heads in the shootout and deserved passage to what will be their fifth semifinal at a European Championship.
That did not prevent relieved Portuguese celebrations.
Portugal continue to be a paradox at Euro 2016, reaching the semi-finals without ever giving the kind of uplifting performance that their talented team should be capable of.
The dream is getting closer’.
“It’s wonderful for the team, for me as well for scoring the goal”, Sanches said. We’re on the right road.
And speaking afterwards, Ronaldo – who scored the opening penalty – is determined to go all the way in France after featuring in the Portugal side who finished runners-up to Greece at Euro 2004.
Renato Sanches, identified as a key player ahead of the match, showed neat footwork to gain space before rifling left-footed past Łukasz Fabiański via a slight deflection. The Real Madrid superstar predicted no easy opponents. We let them take over the game for a bit and weren’t able to control [Arkadiusz] Milik, so I spoke to Renato Sanches to change things and asked Nani to drop a bit deeper.
Poland looked the more confident team for the next 20 minutes but failed to press home their advantage as Portugal settled and began to make inroads.
Fourteen security personnel carried the Ronaldo fan off after he was caught.
That left Quaresma, the hero against Croatia, with the opportunity to win the tie – and he didn’t disappoint.
“They are teams who reach the quarter-finals playing well”, the 31-year-old said.
Lukasz Fabianski got his fingertips to Quaresma’s decisive effort but could not prevent it finding the roof of the net.
Portugal gradually worked their way back into the match.
“We face the semis the same way we have done so far”.
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And Nawalka backed the Bayern Munich star despite him failing to hit the heights of his 42 goal season with the German giants.”Robert Lewandowski is still and always is an important player for this team, he is the captain, he leads by example on and off the pitch”.
