Cristiano Ronaldo fails again

Though Portugal reaches to reach the semifinals of the European Championships Cristiano Ronaldo failed again to score for his team.

The star performer and one of the best footballers of his time again disappointed his fans and country on Thursday.

Beside Portugal beat Poland, 5-3, in a shootout to reach the semifinals of the European Championships on Thursday.

With the quarterfinal tied, 1-1, after extra time, Quaresma fired his penalty kick past Lukasz Fabianski to secure a match against either Wales or Belgium in Lyon on Wednesday.

Portugal has made the semifinals four times in the last five European Championships.

Jakub Blaszczykowski was Poland’s top scorer entering the match. But he had a poor game, and his penalty was saved one-handed by Rui Patricio, allowing Quaresma to finish the job.

Quaresma previously scored an extra-time winner in the round of 16 against Croatia.

On a night when Cristiano Ronaldo turned in another disappointing performance, the 18-year-old midfielder Renato Sanches stepped up to score Portugal’s equalizer in the first half.

Sanches was his team’s main attacking threat with his smart movement and passing, and he took man-of-the-match honors in his first international start.

‘It’s wonderful for the team - for me as well, for scoring the goal,’ Sanches said. ‘People criticize us, but we don’t care, because in the end we’re in the semis.’

Poland striker Robert Lewandowski had put his team in front with the quickest goal of the tournament, scoring within two minutes when Portugal right back Cedric Soares misjudged a ball, allowing Kamil Grosicki to break into space on the left flank and send in a low cross for Lewandowski.

Poland’s lead lasted until the 33rd minute, when Sanches lit up the game with an equalizer.

Sanches, who recently signed with Bayern Munich, cut in from the right and passed to Nani, who sent it back immediately with a neat back-heel.

Sanches then unleashed a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area that took a deflection off Grzegorz Krychowiak on its way past the outstretched Fabianski.

Although he had become the third-youngest scorer in European Championships history, Sanches played down his goal, calling it simply ‘a move that just turned out that way, and I scored.’

When he volunteered to kick in the shootout, he placed a confident strike into the upper-left corner.

The match might have been settled in regulation time if Ronaldo had not missed a golden opportunity in the 85th minute.

He beat the Polish offside trap with a perfectly timed run but completely missed the ball as he tried to convert a bouncing pass from Joao Moutinho.

Ronaldo, the Real Madrid star, missed another good chance early in extra time when he failed to control the ball in front of the goal.

Because of the errors, he has yet to match Michel Platini’s all-time European Championships record of nine goals.

Ronaldo did score Portugal’s opening penalty in the shootout, but after the game, he threw away his captain’s armband in frustration.