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Saturday, 25 June 2016

Switzerland 1 - 1 Poland

Poland will meet Croatia or Portugal in the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 after beating Switzerland on penalties in the first knockout game of the tournament.

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Lukasz Fabianski and Kamil Grosicki were excellent for Poland but Xherdan Shaqiri deserves the award for his goal alone. It was an outstanding effort. A beautiful finish few players are capable of scoring.
Arsenal newcomer Granit Xhaka was the only player to miss in the shootout, with Grzegorz Krychowiak scoring the winning spot-kick for the Poles.

Jakub Blaszczykowski had put Poland ahead six minutes before half-time.
Switzerland hit back through Xherdan Shaqiri's sublime finish, an overhead kick from 18 yards.

How the penalty shootout was won?

Switzerland had never scored a penalty at a major tournament before, but they got off a flying start in the shootout as Stephan Lichtsteiner produced a composed finish down the middle.

After Robert Lewandowski levelled for Poland, Xhaka hit his penalty wildly wide to give the Poles the advantage.

Arkadiusz Milik, Kamil Glik and Kamil Grosicki also scored for Poland while Shaqiri, Fabian Schar and Ricardo Rodriguez found the net for the Swiss to make it 4-4.

The winning kick by Krychowiak sparked scenes of jubilation among Poland's large travelling support in Saint-Etienne.