Portugal Remain Unconvincing, but Croatia Win Can Be Their Tipping Point

Nothing worth winning is won easily, and as Portugal suddenly find themselves in the last eight of Euro 2016 on Sunday morning, that theme will be running through the team’s training camp.

It required extra time, two hours of largely forgettable football and an awful lot of luck, but the 1-0 victory over Croatia in Lens Saturday night has ensured this Portugal side can continue what is a fantastic recent record in European Championships. Beat Poland in the quarter-final in Marseille on Thursday, and it’ll be a fourth last-four appearance in the last five Euros.

Do they deserve it? That is debatable, but while nothing is won easily, it is also not won without upsetting a few people along the way, with Croatia’s Ivan Rakitic the latest.

Per FourFourTwo, the Barcelona midfielder was at a loss to explain why he was on the losing side on Saturday: "They don't have a clue how they scored. If you ask them now how they scored, they probably wouldn't know. They say football is the best game in the world...but sometimes it is the dumbest thing in the world. That was tonight, because it is impossible that the better team has to go home."

Who knew Croatian grapes were that sour? But while Rakitic is left to stew, this Portuguese vintage is looking forward and believing an unpredictable tournament could be theirs despite still not having won a match in 90 minutes in France.

Make no mistake, this was the type of victory that gets forgotten about when teams are parading a trophy.

At the 2014 World Cup, an unconvincing Germany edged past a determined Algeria in extra time despite the North African side putting in a superb performance and peppering Manuel Neuer’s goal.

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In the World Cup before that, eventual winners Spain were thankful for an Oscar Cardozo penalty miss as they beat Paraguay. Do you remember Francesco Totti’s 95th-minute penalty to beat Australia in the second round of the 2006 World Cup? Exactly.

Successes aren’t smooth, but the challenge facing Portugal seems to be whether they actually believe success is possible. They haven’t consistently impressed anyone in this tournament, but then again, who convincingly has?

Against Croatia, manager Fernando Santos called it right, as he dropped Ricardo Carvalho and Vieirinha and brought in the Southampton duo Jose Fonte and Cedric Soares in defence while also giving a chance to Adrien Silva in midfield, an area that desperately needed freshening up.

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When coaches make such calls, they are prepared to stand or fall by them, and the victory came courtesy of a late break. Substitute Ricardo Quaresma’s glorious sense of timing and positioning after Cristiano Ronaldo’s saved effort would have been a huge shot in the arm for Santos. At full time, he was pictured smiling, and those of us who’ve observed him in this tournament didn’t know he was capable of that.

So what now, then?

Poland possess some impressive players and one of the best forwards in the game, but can you say they are a better team than Portugal—a Portugal that, while still malfunctioning and misfiring going forward, have proved to be admirably sturdy at the back?

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The match will be a 50-50 contest, and the great thing about those is you can prepare accordingly.

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 winner in the 95th minute.

You might not believe they look like tournament winners, and that’s because they don’t. But can you make a convincing case for anybody else? Bar Wales and Gareth Bale, does anybody else have a player quite like Ronaldo?

Portugal will have woken up on Sunday battered and bruised from their Lens experience. There will be tired minds and bodies, but they are minds and bodies heading for Marseille while Rakitic’s slightly bitter Croatia head home ruing a glorious missed opportunity.

Nothing worth winning is ever won easily, and Portugal are three games away from winning the greatest prize their continent has to offer.

Will you remember this game if they do?