Portugal reached the semi-finals of the European Championship for the fourth time in five tournaments with a penalty shootout victory over Poland.
Ricardo Quaresma scored the winning spot-kick after Jakub Blaszczykowski's effort was saved by Rui Patricio.
Robert Lewandowski had fired Poland ahead in the second minute with teenager Renato Sanches equalising via a deflected strike.
Portugal's semi-final opponents will be either Wales or Belgium.
Remarkably, Portugal have reached the last four without winning a game in normal time following three draws in a group in which they finished third and an extra-time win over Croatia in the last 16.
No side has ever got this far in a European Championship without winning a match inside 90 minutes.
Portugal have also only led a match for 22 minutes during the whole tournament, while Poland have not trailed for a single minute.
However, for a second dour and conservative knockout game running, Fernando Santos' side did what was required when it mattered.
No comments:
Post a Comment