Valon Behrami’s Euro 2016 hopes are over after Switzerland suffering an agonising 5-4 defeat on penalties against Poland after their last-16 clash had ended 1-1 at the end of extra-time.

After going behind in the first half in Saint-Etienne, the Swiss got back on terms with eight minutes of normal time remaining when Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri scored a sensational overhead kick.

The Hornets midfielder once again started his fourth match of the tournament in the defensive anchor role, but had to be substituted in the second half due to injury.

The Poles took the lead in the 39th minute when they broke on the counter-attack and the back-tracking Behrami tried to stand up Kamil Grosicki on the left side of the penalty area. The Hornets midfielder was unlucky because the ball rebounded off his heel and back to Grosicki, who passed it across the area for Jakub Blaszczykowski to make the breakthrough.

The Swiss improved after the break through, and almost levelled when Ricardo Rodriguez’s long-range effort was superbly tipped over by Swansea City goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

Behrami’s game was to come to an end four minutes later when he had to be replaced, but the Swiss went even closer to equalising moments later when Haris Seferovic hit the crossbar with a left-footed shot.

But when Switzerland’s equaliser did come, it was to be truly memorable. Following a ball in from the left, Xherdan Shaqiri took a couple of steps back before demonstrating wonderful technique to connect perfectly with an overhead kick that had the power to beat the diving Fabianski’s attempts to stop it going past him in-off the post.

Neither side was to score again in extra-time, although it took another fine Fabianski save to keep out an Eren Derdiyok header to prevent the Swiss going through.

The different in the shoot-out ultimately proved to be Switzerland’s second spot-kick which new Arsenal signing Granit Xhaka blasted horribly wide.

Switzerland’s exit means Craig Cathcart is the last Watford player left in the competition and he once again starts for Northern Ireland in their historic last-16 meeting with Wales in Paris.