Croatia1 Poland 0IVAN KLASNIC'S second-half goal made it three wins out of three for Group B winners Croatia and in the process ensured an early tournament exit for Poland.
Klasnic struck in the 52nd minute to earn a much-changed Croatia a deserved victory and they now take on Turkey in the last eight.
Needing a win and a favourable result from the Austria-Germany game to continue their adventure in their first European Championship finals, Poland could find no way through against an impressive Croatia.
Leo Beenhakker's side enjoyed a promising start and Mariusz Lewandowski and Dariusz Dudka both should have done better after winning headers from corners, with neither testing Vedran Runje in the Croatia goal.
However, it was pretty much all Croatia after that with Slaven Bilic's new-look side getting in behind the Polish defence on a number of occasions.
The first time came in the 14th minute when Danijel Pranjic was played through by Klasnic, but the left-back's attempted chip over Poland goalkeeper Artur Boruc drifted harmlessly across the goal.
Croatia may not have got the breakthrough their play deserved in the first period, but they needed just seven minutes of the second half to take the lead.
The goal involved two of the game's most impressive performers, with full-back Pranjic racing onto a loose ball on the edge of the Poland area before cutting a pass back to Klasnic, who slotted home first time low to Boruc's left.
POLAND:Boruc, Wasilewski, Zewlakow, Dudka, Wawrzyniak, Lobodzinski (Smolarek 55), Murawski, Roger, Lewandowski (Kokoszka 46), Krzynowek, Saganowski (Zahorski 69). Subs Not Used: Kowalewski, Fabianski, Jop, Golanski, Bak, Gargula, Pazdan. Booked: Lewandowski, Zahorski.
CROATIA:Runje, Simic, Vejic, Knezevic (Corluka 26), Pranjic, Leko, Vukojevic, Pokrivac, Rakitic, Klasnic (Kalinic 74), Petric (Kranjcar 75). Subs Not Used: Pletikosa, Galinovic, Simunic, Robert Kovac, Nico Kovac, Srna, Modric, Olic, Budan. Booked: Vejic, Vukojevic. Goals: Klasnic 52.
Referee:Kyros Vassaras (Greece).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)