Croatia finished their group engagements unbeaten when they saw off Leo Beenhakker's Poland team 1-0 in Klagenfurt. Werder Bremen striker Ivan Klasnic scored the only goal of the game in the second half, his left footed shot beating Boruc and landing in the far corner of the Polish net.

Dark horses for the title, this was Croatia's third win in as many games at Euro 2008. They had beaten Austria 1-0 in their opening game, and then shocked tournament favourites Germany 2-1. Slaven Bilic rested all his main players, and gave his reserves a run. Barring left back Danijel Pranjic and Schalke midfielder Ivan Rakitic, no other player from the game against Germany took the field. Vedran Runje replaced Pletikosa in goal, and Dario Simic took the captain's armband in his 99th cap for the national side.

Poland came into the game as if their fate had already been decided, and their best player, as it always has been through this tournament, was keeper Artur Boruc. He was kept busy, having to deny Klasnic twice, and Rakitic and Pranjic once each. Poland kept Ebi Smolarek on the bench, and without him, their attack posed no real threat to Runje. Lobodinski, Roger, Dariusz Dudka and Marek Saganowski all came close to scoring, but by and large, Croatia controlled the game and the result never looked in doubt.

Klasnic's goal assumed even more significance given the fact that it came after a kidney transplant in March 2007. Klasnic is the first player with a kidney transplant to take part at the European Championships.

Croatia now meet Turkey in the last eight, and Slaven Bilic's side must fancy their chances of winning their quarterfinal tie against a team they beat 1-0 in Euro 1996. As for Poland, it was a disappointing debut Euro, given that they topped their qualification group ahead of the highly talented Portuguese team. But there is one man that the whole of Poland will probably not forgive- Howard Webb, who awarded the Austrians a late penalty in Vienna and made Poland's three points one.