(BBC)- Portugal reached the semi-finals of the European Championship for the fourth time in five tournaments with a penalty shootout victory over Poland.Ricardo Quaresma scored the winning spot-kick after Jakub Blaszczykowski’s effort was saved by Rui Patricio.
Robert Lewandowski had fired Poland ahead in the second minute with teenager Renato Sanches equalising via a deflected strike.
Portugal’s semi-final opponent will be either Wales or Belgium.
Remarkably, Portugal have reached the last four without winning a game in normal time following three draws in a group in which they finished third and an extra-time win over Croatia in the last 16.
No side has ever got this far in a European Championship without winning a match inside 90 minutes.
Portugal have also only led a match for 22 minutes during the whole tournament, while Poland have not trailed for a single minute of normal time.
However, for a second dour and conservative knockout game running, Fernando Santos’ side did what was required when it mattered.
How the penalty shootout was won
Neither goalkeeper came close to saving the first three penalties from either side.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Sanches and Joao Moutinho all scored excellent penalties for Portugal, with Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik and Kamil Glik following suit for Poland.
However, after Nani had put Portugal 4-3 ahead, Patricio dived full length to his left to palm away Blaszczykowski’s effort with one hand.
Lukasz Fabianski got his fingertips to Quaresma’s decisive effort but could not prevent it finding the roof of the net.