2026 World Cup: VAR controversy saves Portugal in late Croatia thriller

Portugal beat Croatia in the 2026 World Cup 32-final with VAR controversy (Instagram/@portugal).

Goncalo Ramos headed home Rafael Leao's cross in injury time. Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo, who had earlier scored a goal through a penalty kick, watched from the bench as Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 on Friday, July 3, 2026, WIB morning, ending Luka Modric's fifth attempt to win the World Cup.

Ronaldo initially equalised in the 68th minute via a penalty to give the megastar his first goal in the World Cup knockout stage. However, Ramos gave Portugal the victory when they came from behind to win.

"In the first half we dominated the game. In the second half after conceding, we were a little panicked, but this is football. After the penalty, I think our game was a little better. We created some chances and I think in the end we deserved to win the game," said Ronaldo.

The match seemed to end in controversy when Croatia thought they had tied the score to 2-2 in the final minutes.

Only, Mario Pasalic was declared offside and VAR decided there was no goal. Croatian supporters threw bottles onto the pitch and whistled in protest - they also booed Ronaldo whenever the Portuguese star touched the ball.

FIFA then stated that the sensor inside the ball detected that Igor Matanovic of Croatia had touched the ball very faintly before the ball reached Pasalic who was in an offside position.

"The referee said he didn't see our player touch the ball. He said he had a sensor inside the ball and he decided like that."

"However, I don't know what it is. It's very difficult to explain, but we hope someone will explain it to us. The point is, what I saw was Matanovic didn't touch the ball."

"So, for me, it's a normal goal, but I don't know. I say we need to look better and a few more times. I don't know. Today it was like that. Luck was on their side," said Croatian midfielder Petar Sucic.

Meanwhile, Portugal coach Roberto Martinez said no one could argue with the decision.

"The message is very clear, that the balls now have chips and that is very clear. That is why VAR intervened."

"There is no subjective opinion. The ball chip shows that. There were no bad decisions, no unlucky decisions."

"Today it's clear, technology helps. Technology shows us that. Today we are lucky," said Martinez.

It was the 10th goal overturned by VAR so far at the 2026 World Cup, but Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic was not looking to blame the referee for his team's defeat.

"I don't want to comment too much on that, but the referee was clearly very bad. Nothing went in our favor, not one foul, not one decision."

"Nothing benefited us. However, that is not the reason we lost. The referee was bad. Croatia lost and I actually have no right to complain," Dalic said.

Modric - who led Croatia to second and third place in the 2018 and 2022 editions - saw his team unable to recover and their World Cup 2026 journey ended in the last 32.

The match between Portugal vs Croatia was the first match in World Cup history to feature two field players who are at least 40 years old, namely Modric and Ronaldo. The two former teammates at Real Madrid hugged each other in the middle of the field after the match.

"I've been playing with Luka for years. Our ages are almost the same. I think he's a football legend. He's still a football legend," Ronaldo said.

Next, Portugal advanced to face Spain on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in the 16th round of the 2026 World Cup.