Subjected to the cruel lottery of a penalty shoot-out after settling for a stalemate at the end of normal time, new Arsenal man Granit Xhaka fluffed his penalty to send Switzerland out of the Euros and eventually became the centre of all jokes on social media.
Poland and Switzerland gave a glamorous prelude to the knock-out rounds of the European Championships playing out an entertaining draw through the course of normal and extra-time, to send the game into a penalty shoot-out. In a nervy round of spot-kicks, Poland converted all their 5 penalties while Switzerland put away only 4 with Granit Xhaka’s penalty miss to send the Polish through to the knock-outs for the first time ever.
Neither the Swiss nor the Polish had ever gotten past the group stage in the continental extravaganza but had the opportunity to secure progress through to the last eight at Saint-Etienne on Saturday. Jakub Błaszczykowski got the evening’s proceedings underway slipping the ball past Yann Sommer to give Poland the lead in the 39th minute.
However, just as the game was slipping away from the hands of the Swiss, superstar Xherdan Shaqiri scored one of the greatest goals of the European Championships firing in a bicycle kick from the edge of the box to level things up in the 82nd minute for his side.
With neither taking the initiative in extra-time, penalties were brought on to separate the two sides at the end of which Poland emerged 5-4 victors aided by Xhaka’s penalty miss to continue their dream run in the competition. The new Arsenal man instantly became the center of attention on social media.
#Euro2016 picture of the day: Xherdan Shaqiri’s stupendous strike https://t.co/9bthIWsAdq pic.twitter.com/gXEymFqXQU
— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) June 25, 2016
Goal of the tournament from @XS_11official . Wow incredible finish. #SUIPOL
— Alan Shearer (@alanshearer) June 25, 2016
“Note to Arsene Wenger – do NOT put Granit Xhaka on penalties” – @AliBruceBall
His penalty was only miss of #SUIPOL pic.twitter.com/vgRfJuyj7x
— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) June 25, 2016
Granit Xhaka? More like Granit Shocker!!!!
— Luke (@Dierbolic) June 25, 2016
DID LINEKER JUST SAY “GRANIT SHOCKER” HAHAHAHAH
— SA (@VintageCoutinho) June 25, 2016
Granit Shocker ????@GaryLineker you’ve totally redeemed yourself
— Fe (@Sir_roozy) June 25, 2016
Gary lineker savage. Granit shocker ???? #SUIPOL pic.twitter.com/9D1zApEl8e
— Scot Munroe (@ScotM87) June 25, 2016
Who can score a penalty ?
Well,
Xhaka can’t
Xhaka can’t.
Xhaka-Xhaka-Xhaka can’t#bbceuro2016 #suipol— Little Frank (@only_a_puppet) June 25, 2016
Arsenal Fans watching Xhaka miss his penalty! #SUI #Euro2016 pic.twitter.com/VvXvSXYj4V
— Arsenal’s Voice (@ArsenalsVoice) June 25, 2016
Arsenal fans watching Xhaka miss that penalty… #SUIPOL pic.twitter.com/4cFw3cipe6
— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) June 25, 2016
Xhaka’s penalty miss just shows he’s perfect for Arsenal.
— Moe. (@NoLaughingMata) June 25, 2016
That xhaka miss wasn’t his fault tho, the goal clearly moved, right arsenal fans? #ssnhqsanchez
— Ü (@ThoseScouseLads) June 25, 2016
Arsene Wenger seeing that Xhaka penalty and looking for the transfer receipt: pic.twitter.com/1VhbZnmpwG
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) June 25, 2016
Granit Xhaka’s penalty miss is even better with the titanic music. ? pic.twitter.com/BtAqa1dupg
— Titanic Goals (@TitanicGoal) June 25, 2016
Granit Xhaka missing the penalty on purpose as Taulant headed home already and Granit has the key.
— Michiel Jongsma (@JongsmaJongsma) June 25, 2016
Xhaka’s penalty kick just landed at the Emirates
— Footy Humour (@FootyHumour) June 25, 2016
Arsenal fans extended their wave of support for the new signing after a cruel penalty miss marred what was a good run in the competition for the 23-year-old.
Xhaka has had like 4 out of 4 MOTM level performances, forgive me if I don’t rate him only for one penalty miss. Top class signing for us.
— Spanish Gooner (@ElSpanishGooner) June 25, 2016
BREAKING: Xhaka officially a flop; the first player to ever miss a pen.
Source: every dumb-ass on Twitter who knows nothing about football.— Planet Arsenal (@Planet_Arsenal) June 25, 2016
Watched the #SUIPOL HL. Xhaka, a magnificent player whose ability is overshadowed by a penalty miss?
— Azlan Shafiq (@azlan270595) June 26, 2016
You talk about Xhaka’s miss like it’s relevant, Arsenal don’t get penalties anyways.
— Öziologist (@Oziologist) June 26, 2016
Yeah Xhaka’s penalty was awful, but he was comfortably their best player in the tournament. He just won’t take pens for us now… haha
— MGH (@OfficialMgh) June 25, 2016
Guess all of Xhaka’s ability is gone now because of a penalty miss. Weird.
— v (@JustAlexisFC) June 25, 2016
Xhaka even taking long passes from the penalty spot
— Arsenal Column (@ArsenalColumn) June 25, 2016
