Euro 2016: Poland 1-1 Portugal (AET; 3-5 Penalties) - 5 talking points

Portugal won the penalty shootout

Portugal booked their place in the semi-finals of Euro 2016 with a hard fought victory over Poland which saw both sides endure extra time and penalties.

Goals from Robert Lewandowski and Renato Sanches in normal time injected some real excitement into proceedings but the crowd were forced to wait the maximum amount of time possible before seeing a victor emerge.

After over 120 minutes of action, fans were forced to ride out the emotional rollercoaster that are spot kicks as Ricardo Quaresma hit the winning penalty for the Portuguese while Jakub Blaszczykowski had his effort saved by Rui Patricio to secure a 5-3 win after open play had ended 1-1.

Let’s take a look at five main talking points from the match.

1) Ronaldo was wasteful too often

Ronaldo had another poor game

Everybody knows just how brilliant a player Cristiano Ronaldo has been down through the years but he was far too wasteful and inefficient against Poland.

He possesses the capacity to produce the sublime, but he seemed to forget his bag of tricks when faced with the white shirts in their last eight encounter and at times cut the figure of a petulant kid in a sweet shop. Waving his arms at his team-mates if the service wasn’t up to his standard, he did his usual amount of staring in disbelief – and then some.

It’s not as if he didn’t get any good balls in to him in great positions. In fact, it was Ronaldo who was the one fluffing his lines, and not his team-mates.

Arguably Portugal’s best chance at a second goal (which could well have won them the game and spared them a grueling extra 30 minutes) arrived when Joao Moutinho played an inch-perfect lofted pass in to him following the restart only for the Real Madrid star to completely miscue the shot.

Overall, he looked out of sorts and that won't inspire confidence for the nex match and whoever they wind up facing, despite the fact that he hammered home his penalty with authority. He might only be 31 years of age and just two more victories away from capturing his first major international honour but this could be his last real chance at doing so. He’ll be 33 at the next World Cup in Russia, and 35 when the next Euros takes place – if he can’t fire on all cylinders now, he might never do it for