International

Portugal becomes the first semifinalist in the 2016 UEFA European Championship.

 

2016 European Championship

Quarterfinals

Marseille, Stade Velodrome

Poland                       1-1              Portugal

Robert Lewandowski (2’)       Renato Sanches (33’)

                         (3-5 on Penalties)

 

Portugal is into the semifinals.

 

After a little break from the 2016 Euros, Portugal and Poland got us started with the first match of the quarterfinals stage.

 

Poland narrowly escaped Switzerland in the Round of 16 match. It took penalty kicks to decide that match. This was Poland’s first time at this stage in the competition, so there were a few things for the team to learn.

 

Portugal was no different in the Round of 16. They narrowly got past Croatia. But Portugal had never exited from an European Championship before the quarterfinal stage.

 

Because of experience their better experience in the competition’s history and their possession of Cristiano Ronaldo and an on fire Luis Nani, Portugal came into the quarterfinals as favorites. Not by a large margin, but favorites nonetheless.

 

It was a perfect start for the Polish, as Robert Lewandowski got them the lead just 2 minutes into the match. It was a goal that the majority of football fans were waiting for. Lewandowski hadn’t scored in the 2016 European Championship till then. His goal was the second fastest goal in European Championship history. 

 

The early lead did not help Poland. The goal gave them an incentive to protect a lead, which made them more defensive minded that usual. Portugal responded well to going down a goal, and it paid off in the 33rd minute when Renato Sanches found the equalizer with a beauty of a shot. At 18 years 317 days, Renato Sanches became the youngest player to score in the knockout stages of the European Championship.    

It was a great day for Bayern Munich supporters, as their players were the ones to find the net in this match.

The 1-1 scoreline held for the entire match. Penalties were needed to decide the first quarterfinals match of the 2016 European Championship.

 

In the knockout stage of this year’s competition, both teams have failed to win their match with regular game time.

 

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Penalties were good to Poland in the Round of 16, but not in the quarterfinals. Portugal started the kickoff at penalties and scored their first four goals. Jakub Błaszczykowski missed Polish fourth penalty, which made was for Ricardo Quaresma to win the match for Portugal after making no mistakes with his kick.

 

Penalty kick takers.

Poland : Robert Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik, Kamil Glik, Jakub Błaszczykowski(missed)

Portugal : Cristiano Ronaldo, Renato Sanches, Joao Moutinho, Luiz Nani, Ricardo Quaresma

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