Germany booked their place in the last four after producing a clinical performance to edge out slot online in a thrilling quarter-final in Basel.
The pre-tournament favourites had been tipped to struggle against a Portugal side who had illuminated the group stages with some superb attacking play, but Joachim Low’s side rose to the occasion and fully deserved their place in the semi-finals.
For Portugal and out-going coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, it was a disappointing night as their skilful front players failed to rediscover the heights that had seen them book their place in the knockout stages as Group A winners.
Germany, who made hard work of qualifying as runners-up to Croatia in Group B, were not helped by the loss of key midfielder Torsten Frings to a rib injury and coach Joachim Low’s one-match touchline ban.
However, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Simon Rolfes all came into the starting line-up and excelled, with the disappointing Mario Gomez and Clemens Fritz dropped to the bench.
Portugal had threatened first as they carved out the first real opportunity in the 21st minute when Joao Moutinho nipped ahead of Christoph Metzelder but diverted Jose Bosingwa’s low cross over the bar with his knee.
But Germany, who had bossed possession in the opening stages, hit the opposition with a two-goal blast within four minutes with moments of real attacking quality.
The first came on 22 minutes from the sliding boot of Schweinsteiger as he sprinted past a napping Paulo Ferreira and made sure he was in position to stab home Lukas Podolski’s low cross after excellent play down the left flank involving the striker and captain Michael Ballack.
Portugal didn’t even have the opportunity to look shocked as Schweinsteiger turned from scorer to provider four minutes later.
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