June 30 – The Euro 2016 quarter finals start tonight with Poland and Portugal battling for the right to face either Wales or Belgium in the semi-final. Portugal can consider themselves highly fortunate to have got this far having failed to impress, but they are still in the competition and this could be the time when they produce the big performance everyone has been waiting for.
Portugal will assess midfielders Raphael Guerreiro and Andre Gomes, who are nursing minor muscle problems while William Carvalho, Pepe and Ricardo Quaresma are a booking away from missing a potential semi-final.
The same applies to Poland’s Kamil Grosicki, Artur Jedrzejczyk, Krzysztof Maczynski, Michal Pazdan, Slawomir Peszko and Lukasz Piszczek.
Cristiano Ronaldo knows this could be his best chance of landing international silverware and elimination would be a crushing blow given Portugal are in the so-called easier half of the draw.
But Poland will be awkward opponents. They may have not won a game at a European Championship finals before this year but deserved to beat Germany in the group phase when the teams drew 0-0 and are now just one match away from matching their best-ever performance at a major tournament, semi-finalists at the 1982 World Cup.
Their defence has been particularly impressive though up front we are still waiting for Robert Lewandowski, who top scored in qualifying with 13 goals, to prove himself on the big stage. Could this be the night when he outshines Ronaldo?
Poland and Portugal have me twice before at major tournaments. Poland won 1-0 at the 1986 World Cup and Portugal won 4-0 victory at the 2002 World Cup. However, Poland are unbeaten in their past three matches with Portugal (W1, D2) with their last meeting being a 0-0 draw in Warsaw in February 2012.
Poland are the lowest scoring side to have made it to the quarter-finals (three goals in four games) but they have yet to be behind at any point in a game at the Euros and have only conceded one goal in four games.
Portugal have the chance to reach the semi-finals for the fifth time in seven European Championship finals and have played the most games (32) in the history of the Championships without ever winning the tournament.
Cristiano Ronaldo has played in more games than any other player at European Championship finals and is one goal short of Michel Platini’s record of nine goals in the competition.
The match looks likely to hinge on which Ronaldo and Lewandowski turn up, the profligate or brutal ones in front of goal.
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