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Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal beat Poland on penalties to enter semis
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal battled their way to a place in the European Championship last four on Thursday winning a penalty shootout 5-3 against Poland in a tense quarter-final.
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Teenage sensation Renato Sanches, who scored Portugal’s goal and smashed home one of the penalties, said it was a “wonderful moment for the team and for me for scoring”. Portugal have reached the last four without winning a single game within 90 minutes.
Poland had started strongly, with Robert Lewandowski scoring his first goal of Euro 2016 inside two minutes in the Marseille clash before 18-yearold Sanches, his new teammate at Bayern Munich, equalised with a powerfully driven shot. The game then went through extra-time deadlocked at 1-1. Goalkeeper Rui Patricio and Ricardo Quaresma were Portugal’s heroes in the shootout.
Ronaldo was among the players fist-pumping when Patricio dived to his left to save Jakub Blaszczykowski’s tame fourth shot for the Poles, who had reached the quarter-finals for the first time. Quaresma was next up for Portugal and made no mistake firing high into the net to beat Poland goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
Poland made a blistering start to the game. After barely 100 seconds, Kamil Grosicki hurried past Southampton right-back Cedric Soares to deliver a great cross that Lewandowski drove past a flailing Rui Patricio at his near post.
The Polish striker’s first goal of the competition, after hitting a record 13 in qualifying, stunned Portugal. The early goal gave Poland momentum, and a defiant but borderline interception by Grzegorz Krychowiak on Sanches set Arkadiusz Milik up for a 25-yard drive that sailed wide on the quarter hour. Ronaldo hit the defensive wall with one free kick and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski had no trouble with Ronaldo’s 18-yard drive from a Nani cross.
Portugal’s goalkeeper Rui Patricio stops a shot in a penaltyshoot-out during the Euro 2016 quarter-final football match
A dream for coach Fernando Santos
Portuguese coach Fernando Santos said his hardest task will be keeping his “kids” grounded after they advanced to the semi-finals on Thursday.
More than a third of Sanches’ 23-man squad are under the age of 25, with 18-year old Renato Sanches producing a match-winning performance in his first start. He became the youngest player to score in a knockout stage game at the Euros. “I have to manage everything because for these kids ... it’s a dream,” said Santos, whose team will play either Belgium or Wales in next Wednesday’s semi-final. “They are playing for their country, they have reached the semis and now anything can happen. It is a dream for me, but I imagine it is an even bigger dream for my players.”
Santos put faith in his youngsters in the quarter-final, with João Mário (23) William Carvalho (24) and Cédric (24) all joining Sanches in the starting side and the coach felt conceding an early goal may have been down to a lack of experience. “Some of them (my players) have reached this stage for the first time and some of their heads are up in the clouds because they are dreaming of what’s happening.” Shortly after they went behind, Santos hauled over Sanches -- the youngest player to start for Portugal in a major tournament -- for a chat. Although he would not divulge what was said, it seemed to make the difference.
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