Marseille (AFP) – Robert Lewandowski will be aiming to smash  Cristiano Ronaldo’s dreams of landing an international trophy when Poland meet Portugal in a Euro 2016 quarter-final clash on Thursday.

Ronaldo is just one goal away from more European championship history by matching French legend Michel Platini’s record mark of nine goals in the finals.

The Real Madrid star has already become the first player to score in four Euros and broken the competition appearances record.

At 31 Ronaldo is unlikely to get a better chance for international glory.The winners in Marseille will face a semi-final clash against his Real Madrid teammate Gareth Bale and Wales or Belgium.

Portugal coach Fernando Santos insisted the weight of a nation’s expectations will not burden the three-time world player of the year.

“It is a natural thing some are mentioned more than others because they are amazing players. Ronaldo knows how to deal with that,” said Santos.

Despite a double against Hungary to help Portugal  sneak through the group stage in third place, Ronaldo has yet to catch fire in France.

A flat display and post-match rant against Iceland in Portugal’s opener was followed by a missed penalty in a stalemate against Austria.

He was also kept quiet for 117 minutes a dull last 16 clash with Croatia.  But his only effort on goal led to the breakthrough as Ricardo Quaresma headed home after Danijel Subasic parried Ronaldo’s effort.

Lewandowski is yet to find the net in four games in France, but kept his cool to convert from the spot as Poland progressed to their first major quarter-final for 34 years with a 5-4 penalty shootout win over Switzerland.

However, Poland coach Adam Nawalka insisted it is the better team and not just a shootout between Ronaldo and Lewandowski that will make the difference.

“I don’t even want to mention Cristiano Ronaldo, who’s one of the best in the world,” said Nawalka.

“Football is a team game. No one player can decide the outcome of a match. Portugal have top class players throughout their team and we have to also focus on them.”

– Milik inspired –

Ajax striker Arkadiusz Milik has also failed to fire for Poland despite scoring the winner in their opening 1-0 win over Northern Ireland.

Milik missed a golden chance to hand Poland a famous win in their 0-0 Group C draw with Germany and was wasteful against Switzerland.

However, he is hoping a meeting with Ronaldo will inspire him back into form.

“I’ve been trying to learn as much as I could from watching him,” said Milik.

“You can’t help but be inspired by him. He’s talented, but he also puts in a lot of hard work. 

“It will be special for me to play against him tomorrow, but of course I will try to focus on my team instead of looking up to him.”

Milik has also enlisted the support of Ajax assistant manager and Arsenal legend Denis Bergkamp to find his touch in front of goal.

“Dennis Bergkamp is very special to me. He had a wonderful career and you can always learn something from him and I’m still learning from him.”

Portugal have fitness concerns over Raphael Guerreiro, Andre Gomes and Joao Moutinho, so wonder kid Renato Sanches could start for the first time in the tournament.

The 18-year-old showed why German giants Bayern Munich paid Benfica 35 million euros ($38 million) for his services as he came off the bench to win man-of-the-match against Croatia.

However, Santos resisted calls to throw Sanches into the team.

“He only started working with us in March. He is still growing and it is up to me to analyse and decide if he can be useful for the team.”