Poland beats Switzerland on penalties to reach Euro 2016 quarterfinals

Grezgorz Krychowiak scored the winning spot-kick for Poland.

It was also the first time either nation had made it to the knockout rounds of a major tournament since the 1958 World Cup. Even Robert Lewandowski, the Bayern Munich goal machine who replaced Blaszczykowski as captain in 2013, must bow to him on that score. “It is nice. Let’s hope it will stay like this all the way through to the final”. And when Grosicki exhausted, Switzerland became far more effective.

“In general we are very happy as we did something we had not done before”, Blaszczykowski said.

“We dragged it out of their hands”. We were confident our game plan was going to work out.

Poland will play either Croatia or Portugal for a berth in the semis.

Shaqiri suggested Xhaka will recover quickly from his miss, blasting the ball well wide from 12 yards, and insisted he was “proud” of his team-mates despite their defeat, which he compared to their extra-time loss to Argentina at the 2014 World Cup.

“I think Granit is very professional, he can cope with it”, Shaqiri said. “That’s football, everyone can make mistakes”.

It was a historic occasion for both sides as neither had previously reached the knockout stages of a Euro finals.

Several Swiss shots were charged down and after the restart Xherdan Shaqiri wreaked havoc with a pull-back from the by-line. Lewandowski’s reading of a reckless Johan Djourou back pass forced the ball into Milik’s path, with Yann Sommer marooned.

And Milik wasted a terrific chance with 33 minutes gone, hurrying a shot over the bar when given time and space by a Lewandowski flick-on.

In came midfielders Krzysztof Maczynski, Kamil Grosicki and Jakub Błaszczykowski as well as defender Łukasz Piszczek.

The Swiss grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck as they hunted a second-half equaliser.

He put Breel Embolo on for attacking midfielder Blerim Dzemaili and the move paid off.

At the other end Ricardo Rodríguez sent a delight free kick curling towards the top right corner only for Lukasz Fabianski to produce an equally stunning save to tip over the bar.

There will be no solace that Xherdan Shaqiri, with his acrobatic bicycle-kick volley, will surely take the goal of the tournament – an 82nd moment of inspiration arriving just when Switzerland looked finished.

Substitute Eren Derdiyok missed a sitter for the Swiss when Fabianski kept out his close-range header but a rattled Poland somehow held on to force the shoot-out.

“It is instinct and belief because you have to really be convinced when you throw yourself at a ball like that”, said Switzerland coach Vladimir Petkovic.