Why VAR Denied Croatia’s Late Equalizer In Portugal World Cup Win

It certainly looked like Croatia had equalized against Portugal in the 2026 World Cup round of 32 match on Thursday. Joško Gvardiol appeared to make it 2-2 in stoppage time, scoring in the 102nd minute to send the game into extra time.

But VAR intervened and ruled it out for offside, and it was a tricky one.

The ball was crossed in by Ivan Perišić, and it appeared that Mario Pašalić had gotten in behind before chesting it down for Gvardiol to finish with a sliding effort. It looked as if Croatia had rescued itself right at the end, just like it has done so many times before.

"What happens is, as the ball comes into the penalty area, No. 20 of Croatia jumps for the ball," FOX Sports rules analyst Mark Clattenburg said during the match broadcast.

"If he touches the ball, he will then make an offside for No. 15 [for Croatia]. … If [No. 20] doesn't touch the ball, then [No. 15] is onside. If he does touch it, it's offside."

But VAR intervened. Initially, it looked like Pašalić had chested the ball off a deflection from Portugal’s Renato Veiga, which would have kept him onside. But after the VAR review, it showed that Croatia’s Igor Matanović got a slight flick on the ball before it reached Veiga.

At the point the ball made contact with Matanović’s head, Pašalić was in an offside position, which negated the goal in heartbreaking fashion for this Croatian side.

"They also have a chip in the ball," Clattenburg added. "They'll be able to see if that Croatia player has touched the ball. So, this will factor into the decision."

As we noted in a story last year, Adidas' World Cup ball for this tournament features several advanced elements, including the sensor chip:

The ball, composed of four panels, features a side-mounted motion sensor chip on the inside that will relay data to each game's VAR and video match officials, aimed to assist in faster decisions, including offside and possible handballs.

"We can track every event, every interaction the player has with the ball. Every location at any given moment is being tracked by a local positioning system," said Hannes Schaefke, Football Innovation Lead for Adidas. "So this sensor essentially sends a signal 500 times per second, to anchor points around the stadium, which is generally pretty cool."

Croatia's exit could also potentially mean this was the last time we see Luka Modrić at a World Cup, and if that is the case, it is a devastating way to go out.

Portugal survived this one with a late goal from Gonçalo Ramos in the 94th minute and has now earned a date with the reigning European champion, Spain, on Monday, July 6 at Dallas Stadium.

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