Poland became the first side to reach the last eight after beating Switzerland 5-4 in a penalty shootout, with the scores level at 1-1 after extra time. Kuba Blaszcyzkowski continued his superb Euros record, opening the scoring in the first half. Blaszczykowski has scored or assisted five of Poland’s six goals in the competition’s history.
Poland were pushed back in the second half and conceded late on when Xherdan Shaqiri’s spectacular overhead kick beat Lukasz Fabianski. The Swansea keeper was in a great form on the day and looks set to keep out Wojciech Szczesny, should the latter recover from a thigh injury.
Poland converted all five of their penalty kicks in the shootout, with Granit Xhaka’s miss for Switzerland proving costly.
Portugal creeped through to the quarterfinal with a narrow 1-0 win over Croatia. Portugal were outplayed for the majority of the 90 minutes but held on for their fourth consecutive normal-time draw. The match looked to be heading for a penalty shootout before substitute Ricardo Quaresma struck in the 117th minute.
Speaking after the match, Portugal headcoach Fernando Santos said: “Sometimes you have to be pragmatic. It’d be nice to play pretty but that’s not always how you win tournaments. Both teams went into this thinking this was a key step towards the final and luck was on our side – we earned it. Next up, Poland.”
Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo will be looking to add to his 2 goals and 2 assists while his Polish counterpart Robert Lewandowski is still to get off the mark in France. Teenage midfielder Bartosz Kapustka will be back in contention for Adam Nawalka’s side, having served a 1-match suspension in the previous round.
The match will be Poland’s second at the Stade Velodrome, following their 1-0 win over Ukraine in the group stage. The winner of the tie will face one of Wales or Belgium in the semi-finals in Lyon on July 6.
Possible XI
Poland: Fabianski, Piszczek, Glik, Pazdan, Jedrzejczyk, Blaszczykowski, Krychowiak, Maczynski, Grosicki, Milik, Lewandowski.
Portugal: Rui Patricio, Soares, Pepe, Fonte, Guerreiro, Joao Mario,, Adrien Silva, Carvalho, Renato Sanches, Nani, Ronaldo.
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