Plucky co-hosts grab late point

Garics: Tackles Krzynowek

Austria scored a stoppage time penalty to earn a 1-1 draw with Poland in Group B in Vienna - a result which fired Croatia into the last eight.

The Euro 2008 co-hosts wasted several first-half chances before being hit by the perfect sucker-punch by Poland.

Austria could have been 3-0 up at Ernst Happel Stadium but could not get past Artur Boruc and Roger Guerreiro controversially put them ahead before Ivica Vastic netted from the spot three minutes into time added on.

Premier League referee Howard Webb was in charge of his first match in the tournament but the early focus was on Poland's shaky defence rather than his decisions.

With his club manager Gordon Strachan at the ground as a pundit, Boruc made three early saves that kept Poland level.

Two were from Martin Harnik, who firstly latched onto a Marcin Wasilewski backpass and raced through, only for Boruc to deny him with his feet.

Umit Korkmaz then weaved his way down the left before crossing for Harnik, with Boruc initially diving the wrong way but then using his feet to save and then showed great presence of mind to kick away when Michal Zewlakow passed back to him.

Poland's defence was exposed again with a ball over the top and Boruc this time had to deny Christoph Leitgeb.

The Austrians were playing with confidence, belying their world ranking of 92nd and looking the more likely to score.

Inevitably, Poland grabbed the opener totally against the run of play, on the half-hour mark.

Euzebiusz Smolarek swung the ball over from left to right, Marek Saganowski checked back and his deflected shot fell into the path of Guerreiro, with more than a suspicion of offside as he tapped in from close range.

Just after the hour Austria keeper Jurgen Macho made a superb stop at his near post to deny Mariusz Lewandowski before blocking the rebounded effort as well.

And on 67 minutes Macho was alive to tip over a powerful free-kick from Jacek Krzynowek, which was set to dip under the bar.

But just as it looked like Austria had blown it, Sebastian Prodl was fouled by Wasilewski in the box and Vastic slammed home the equaliser to propel Croatia through as group winners.