Santos thinks his Portugal side were lucky against Croatia

The contest was a turgid affair for much of the 120 minutes.

Quaresma struck three minutes from the end of the extra period after a Cristiano Ronaldo shot was brilliantly saved by Danijel Subasic to settle the tie just a minute after Croatia’s Ivan Perisic had hit the post with a header.

The match in Lens was abysmal.

The goal was one of only two efforts on target in the whole game and afterwards Santos said that he didn’t mind playing ugly if it meant winning. Croatia are likely to be even stronger for Saturday ” s clash in Lille (11pm UAE Time) than against Spain with the return of Ronaldo ” s Real Madrid teammate Luka Modric from injury.

“There will be many other opportunities to win in Europe throughout my career, and make up for this huge disappointment”, Ronaldo said as a 19-year-old after the 2004 defeat to Greece. He dropped deep and pulled out wide in a bid to get involved, but the ball to him was cut out more often than not. And just when they threatened the Portuguese keeper for with a Perisic header that rattled the post, Portugal went straight up the other end got the victor.

Stationed on that remarkably open side of the draw, Santos, Ronaldo and Portugal might have just found their tipping point in this competition: their Algeria win, their Cardozo penalty miss and their Totti victor in the 95th minute.

However, Cacic refuted suggestions his side had crumbled under the pressure of being classed as favourites after beating defending champions Spain on Tuesday to top Group D.

But against Portugal their form went missing. Playmakers Rakitic and Modric were scrapping for possession, and winger Ivan Perisic, who had been a potent weapon with his driving runs, only impressed with his hairstyle. The Dynamo Kiev centre-back twice went close with headers and nearly took the match to penalties with another effort. “I thought we had a lot of chances that we just didn’t put in”. “We dominated, had the ball, created chances and they scored and won from some lucky counter attack”. Portugal are a high-quality side with experienced players.

“Everything was ideal except we didn’t score”, Cacic told reporters.

“We had to be patient”, Bale said. Juventus frontman Mario Mandzukic is also likely to shake off a knock to retake his place after Croatia coach Ante Cacic made five changes for the historic win over Span. “Croatia are one of the sharks we had been trying to avoid”, admitted Portugal boss Santos.

“We knew we had a really open part of the draw against Poland, but that is tournament football”.

It took Ronaldo 117 minutes to get a meaningful touch in the Croatia penalty area in the last 16 match against on Saturday, yet he was decisive in helping his country to reach another European Championship quarter-final.

“We didn’t allow them to counter-attack but going forwards we do have room for improvement”.

Contrast England manager Roy Hodgson’s tinkering at these Euros with Wales counterpart Chris Coleman’s absolute conviction that he knows his best formation and his best team. We were ready for them and we set up to resist their strengths and take advantage of their weak spots.

“At times we could have passed the ball faster but Croatia influenced that”.

“Sometimes you have to be pragmatic. It’d be nice to play pretty but that’s not always how you win tournaments”, he told his post-match press conference.

Northern Ireland’s support in France has been absolutely incredible, and it was a fantastic achievement for them to reach the knockout phase.

-It was the first time Ronaldo had started a European Championship game and not registered a single shot within 90 minutes. We played more aggressively and tried to score more.

-Croatia had 17 shots but none were on target.

Fernando Santos is one of the tournament’s most amiable coaches, yet his team seem to be one of the most unpopular.