Portugal vs Croatia VAR controversy puts Snicko in the spotlight

The Portugal vs Croatia VAR controversy centred on one late moment and one tiny touch. Joško Gvardiol’s equaliser was ruled out in the 13th minute of stoppage time after a VAR review, and Croatia were left raging at how the call was reached. The official result stayed Portugal vs Croatia 2-1, but the debate was never really about the scoreline.

Dalic's anger and Portugal's defence of the call

Zlatko Dalic did not hold back. "VAR kills emotions, it kills everything within you. We have gone too far with VAR," he said, after describing the refereeing as very bad. He also said Croatia had been denied fouls and set-pieces on their side.

Portugal’s Roberto Martinez took the opposite line. "It's a shame one of the two teams had to lose. But there is no bad decision or lucky decision. It was a clear moment. The balls now have a chip and the sensor shows the ball was touched," he said. That is the key split here: Croatia saw a goal taken away by technology, Portugal saw a clear decision backed by the equipment.

Croatia fans threw bottles and cans on to the pitch, briefly delaying the restart. The reaction told you how raw the moment felt inside the stadium.

How the offside was found

The decision hinged on Igor Matanović’s faint touch in the build-up, which shifted Mario Pašalić into an offside position. FIFA said the Adidas Trionda match ball’s connected ball technology proved Matanovic made contact, and the broadcast showed the touch as a "heartbeat graphic" from the ball sensors.

Former referee and BBC refereeing expert Darren Cann backed the offside call too. "He was offside when the ball was last played by a teammate and the ball was deflected by the defender and not deliberately played, so the offside stands. Snicko, that 100 percent proves that he touched it with the flick-on," he said.

The technology decided the sequence, but it was still a human-style football argument at heart. Croatia felt the touch was too faint to punish in such a moment. Portugal leaned on the chip, the sensor and the review process. With the official result fixed at Portugal 2-1 Croatia, the controversy now belongs to the call rather than the scoreboard.