Klagenfurt: Ivan Klasnic gave Croatia's European Championship campaign an inspirational boost, scoring the goal to help his team beat Poland 1-0 only 18 months after receiving a kidney from his father.
Wearing a fiberglass shield to guard his precious transplanted organ, Klasnic was the first kidney recipient to play at a European Championship and scored a well-taken goal to ensure Croatia goes into Friday's quarter-finals against Turkey in Vienna with three wins from Group B.
"I'm happy that I'm here at all," Klasnic said.
"As I said once, this is like a bonus from God. It's like a dream. I thank God that I'm alive and that a can play football."
The 28-year-old striker constantly troubled the Poland defence, and swept in a left-footed shot from a cross by stand-in captain Danijel Pranjic in the 53rd minute at Worthersee Stadium for his ninth goal in 30 internationals.
"We are very proud because we played this match at such a high level and scored a third victory here," Croatia coach Slaven Bilic said. "We didn't just play good - we played super."
Poland needed a convincing defeat of Croatia and an Austria victory over Germany to advance.
It got neither.
Germany silenced Polish fans by taking the lead in the 48th minute for an eventual 1-0 win over the co-hosts in Vienna.
Five minutes later, Klasnic ended Poland's faint chance of a quarter-final spot.
Poland coach Leo Beenhakker said the defeat summed up his team's Euro 2008 campaign.
"We have tried and it was not enough, and I think that was more or less what we saw the whole tournament," he said. "To be realistic, during this tournament we weren't good enough."
A second-string Croatia outclassed Poland and it was only goalkeeper Artur Boruc who kept his team in the game.
He twice rushed off his line to block shots by Klasnic and Ivan Rakitic after good passes by Mladen Petric had cut open Poland's defence in the first half.
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In the 20th minute, Hrvoje Vejic flicked on a free kick with his head and Klasnic, lurking at the far post, just failed to get a foot on the ball.
In the 33rd, Klasnic used his chest well to control Petric's pass but Boruc dived at his feet to block the shot.
In January 2007, the German-born Klasnic suffered kidney failure.
Shortly afterward, he received a transplant but his body rejected the kidney donated by his mother.
A couple of months later, he again underwent surgery to replace the rejected kidney with one from his father.
Klasnic is one of a small number of professional athletes to return after an organ transplant.
Without his fiberglass shield, a kick could prove life-threatening.
"We had prayed for Ivan, but he's a brave man and he was encouraging us when he was in a dire situation," Bilic said. "We are happy to have him back."
Poland pressed for an early goal, but poor finishing again cost the team that had only scored only once in its first two matches.
Croatia easily stifled the creativity of Poland star Roger Guerreiro, though not always fairly.
Both Vejic and Nikola Pokrivac earned yellow cards for fouls on the Brazilian-born midfielder.
However, Roger was involved in Poland's best move of the match, crossing from the left in the 68th after substitute Euzebiusz Smolarek passed to Dariusz Dudka, but Marek Saganowski's powerful header was well saved by goalkeeper Vedran Runje.
Croatia had sealed a quarter-final place against Turkey with a match to spare by beating Austria 1-0 and Germany 2-1.
Poland lost 2-0 to Germany and were denied victory over Austria by a contentious injury-time penalty for a 1-1 draw.
Bilic gave eight players their first start at Euro 2008, resting most of his first-choice team to avoid injuries or further yellow cards.
Despite needing a big win, Beenhakker dropped Smolarek and replaced him with Lobodzinski.
Smolarek gave the attack fresh impetus in the second half as a substitute, sending a left-footed shot over the crossbar in the 81st. But by that time, Poland were just about out of Euro 2008.
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