Euro 2016: Portugal vs Poland preview | Pressure mounts on Ronaldo and Lewandowski to take their team forward

The monstrous Polish centre back pairing of Michal Pazdan and Kamil Glik face their toughest challenge yet when they come up against Portugal in the last-eight clash in Marseille on Thursday, though their previous matches have not provided much by way of preparation for facing the Real Madrid star. 

29-year-old Ronaldo is the only player to have scored a goal in four Euros going back to 2004 and, while he struggled to find his feet early in this year's tournament, there are signs that he is back to his sublime best.  He scored twice in Portugal's last group match against Hungary -- an audacious back heel and a towering header — and has had a hand in two of his country's other three goals, most importantly the shot that set up Ricardo Quaresma to score the easiest of extra-time winners in their last-16 win over Croatia. 

Poland on the other hand, have conceded just three goals all year and only one in the Euros, an outrageous bicycle kick by Switzerland's Xherdan Shaqiri in their round-of-16 tie which they eventually won on penalties. Only Germany still have a clean sheet in the tournament. But their matches in France so far will have done little to prepare them for the pace, power and superhuman heading ability that Ronaldo possesses, however. 

Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny laughed off suggestions Ronaldo is not on top form, but said he has also been impressed by Bayern Munich's 35 million euro recruit Renato Sanches after the 18-year-old came off the bench to win man-of-the-match against Croatia. "Portugal are a great team, they are not just Cristiano Ronaldo and some say he is not playing his best. I would still love to have him in my team," said Szczesny. "Besides Cristiano, I am impressed by Renato Sanches. Undoubtedly we have a big task ahead of us on Thursday." 

Lewandowski is yet to find the net in four games in France, but kept his cool to convert from the spot as Poland progressed to their first major quarter-final for 34 years with a 5-4 penalty shootout win over Switzerland. "We are not worried about Robert, not at all," said Poland assistant boss Hubert Malowiejski. "Of course he felt some pain after that match, but there is not even the slightest bit of doubt he will be ready for Portugal."

Portugal have had marginally the better of the teams' ten previous meetings. Poland's greatest moment on the international stage was taking a third place finish at the 1974 and 1982 FIFA World Cups. Robert Lewandowski was the top Polish scorer in qualifying with 13 goals, equalling the competition record set by Northern Ireland's David Healy in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying; he has yet to score at these finals. 

Portugal have yet to win in Marseille — they drew 1-1 to Spain in Euro 1884 and then 2-3 to France after extra time in the semifinals.

Match Timing: 12.30 am, July 1

Where to watch: Sony Six, Sony Espn and live streaming

Stat Attack

Portugal have scored six number of times in the second half against Poland out of their last six goals against their quarterfinal opponents. Portugal have made six consecutive appearances in the quarterfinals of a European Championship — the only team to achieve this feat. Ronaldo has played 18 number of games at a European Championship. He's now only one goal short of Michel Platini's record of nine goals in the competition. 

Probable XI

Poland: L Fabianski, L Piszczek, K Glik, M Pazdan, A Jedrzejczyk, K Grosicki, T Jodloweiec, G Krychowiak, P Zielinski, K Grosicki, A Milik, R Lewandowski

Portugal: R Patricio, C Soares, Pepe, J Fonte, R Guerreiro, Joao Mario,, Adrien Silva, W Carvalho, A Gomes Nani, C Ronaldo

Deadly duel

Robert Lewandowski (Poland)
Age: 27
Position: Forward
Caps: 80
Goals: 34

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Age:31
Position: Forward
Caps: 130
Goals: 60

One might say Ronaldo hasn't set the stage in France on fire, but it was his brace against Hungary that saw his side post a draw and finish third in their group. Despite a quiet game against Croatia, it was the skipper's assist that led to Ricardo Quaresma scoring the winner so claims of the Portuguese not being upto the mark can be put to rest. On the other hand, Lewandowski has been one of the biggest disappointments of the tournament having failed to net a single goal after scoring 13 times during the qualification stages. 

Manager talk

Fernando Santos, Portugal 

Portugal faced Poland in the opening game four years ago in Greece. But Fermamdp Samtps believes that this match has nothing to do with the 2012 one. "My counterpart believes Poland will go through; I believe we will go through. There are no favourites – it's 50-50," he said.

"Everybody is talking about Cristiano Ronaldo and there's a reason for that – he's an amazing player. There are hundreds of players here we don't talk about every day, but it's normal to talk about players like Ronaldo or Lewandowski. Ronaldo knows how to deal with that." 

Santos is expecting a balanced game. "Poland are a very strategic team. They go from defence to attack very quickly and you can tell a lot of work has been done behind the scenes. When we have the ball ourselves, we'll try and take advantage of their weak points."

Adam Nawałka, Poland

Nawalka feels that Poland knows what their strong points are. He said, "We've been making good progress and we expect to deliver a high level of football. We're expecting a difficult match but we want to control it according to our own game plan." 

Nawalka's key player is Robert Lewandowski. He has performed a key role as captain. "He's in very good physical and mental shape and is doing a great job for us," he said.

Team stats: 

The following players from both sides will miss the next match should they receive a booking

Poland: Kamil Grosicki, Krzysztof Maczynski, S'awomir Peszko, Lukasz Piszczek, Michal Pazdan, Artur Jedrzejczyk
Portugal: William Carvalho, Pepe, Ricardo Quaresma