Red Dragon roars, Poland makes history, Quaresma saves Portugal

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates the opening goal scored by his teammate Ricardo Quaresma during the Euro 2016 round of 16 match between Croatia and Portugal at the Bollaert stadium in Lens, France, June 25, 2016.  [Photo/IC]

The third duel was played in Lens between Croatia, who beat defending champions Spain 2-1 to top Group D, and Portugal, who finished third in Group F with three draws and the only team entering Round of 16 without a win.

Ricardo Quaresma scored in late extra time to gift Portugal a 1-0 win over Croatia.

Portugal will face Poland in the quarterfinals in Marseille on Thursday.

The tough and tight duel witnessed a goalless draw after regular time and was expected to go into another penalty shootout.

The 32-year-old Besiktus forward Quaresma, who came from the bench in the 87th minute, captured the last chance in the 117th minute when Cristiano Ronaldo's close-range shot was denied by Croatian keeper Danijel Subasic. Quaresma was on hand to knock the rebound into the empty net.

Portugal coach Fernando Santos said, "This's a very tight match, very attacking football. We respect each other. Today we are the lucky side. we are going to have tough game against Poland in five days."

Statistics showed that Croatia made 15 attempts in the whole game but not a single shot was on target. Portugal made five attempts, two on target. During the regular time, both sides made 15 attempts altogether, which all missed target. Quaresma's goal was the first shot on target by either side.

This game made Luis Cunha Nani become the fourth player to win 100 caps for Portugal.

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