It was the tragic finale to a wild game: In the 13th minute of stoppage time, Croatia celebrated the equalizer, only for the chip in the ball to reveal an offside call. The Croatians were left to grapple with their World Cup exit against Portugal.
“We didn’t deserve to be eliminated; we were on equal footing with Portugal,” lamented Croatia’s coach Zlatko Dalic. Martin Baturina added: “We were undeservedly eliminated; they were just lucky. We didn’t deserve for it to end this way.” The Croatians had just fought an epic, nerve-wracking battle against Portugal. It ended badly for the Croatians; the 2018 World Cup runners-up and 2022 World Cup third-place finishers must pack their bags after the round of 16.
After a lackluster first half, the Vatreni had picked up momentum and taken the lead through Ivan Perisic—who, with his seventh World Cup goal, surpassed Davor Suker to become his country’s all-time leading World Cup scorer. Several dramatic moments followed, and as Bayern’s Josip Stanisic noted: “Luck wasn’t on our side today.”
A controversial penalty kick that tied the game, as well as two disallowed goals due to undisputed offside calls, had the Croatians already seething. Stanisic said afterward: “The referee could have made a call in our favor; in close games, that can make all the difference.”
Chip in the ball and no “deliberate play”
But things were about to get even more dramatic: Croatia actually equalized even later—in the 13th minute of stoppage time (!)—after a late goal by Portugal’s substitute Goncalo Ramos. Or so it seemed: While the Croatians were jubilantly swarming around goal-scorer Josko Gvardiol, the VAR intervened. Mario Pasalic had set up the play from a position that appeared to be offside—the only question was: Who had provided the penultimate pass?
Igor Matanovic had previously tried to flick a cross on to Pasalic. The Freiburg striker himself didn’t know if he’d succeeded: “I felt a slight touch on my hair. But I wasn’t sure if I’d touched the ball.”
The answer came from the chip embedded in the ball, which records when and with what force the ball is touched. When the referee reviewed the play on the screen, a small spike in the impulse curve revealed Matanovic’s touch. “I asked the referee what he had seen. He didn’t say anything, but the sensor in the ball showed him that Matanovic had touched the ball,” Baturina explained later. So was it a clear offside?
In any case, Matanovic had very slightly deflected the ball—specifically to Portugal’s defender Renato Veiga. Veiga headed the ball with the back of his head to assist provider Pasalic. But was that “deliberate play”—a conscious act of playing the ball that cancels out the offside? The Norwegian referee did not rule it as such. In fact, the ball had fallen onto the completely surprised defender’s head from close range; there was no question of intent.
Martinez Praises the Help of Technology
And so the celebrated goal was disallowed. Instead of extra time, there was a dramatic World Cup exit that left Croatia grappling with fate—and with VAR. “It kills the emotion; it’s not easy to deal with. Soccer should be fair, but with VAR we’ve gone too far,” Dalic said angrily at the press conference.
His counterpart, Roberto Martinez, took the opposite view: “The chip proved that Matanovic was the first to touch the ball, and therefore it was offside. This is one of the examples that shows how technology helps the sport. It wasn’t a wrong call!”
