Qatar vs Switzerland: VAR row and late equaliser define historic draw

Qatar's first World Cup point arrived in a 1-1 draw with Switzerland, but the match will be remembered just as much for the disputed penalty decision as for Boualem Khoukhi's late equaliser. Breel Embolo put Switzerland ahead from the spot in the 17th minute after VAR checked the Remo Freuler incident. Qatar then levelled in the 90+4 minute, and it was their first ever point in the competition.

Why the penalty call stayed at the centre of the night

Gary Neville was blunt about the incident. Speaking on sportsmole.co.uk, he said: "We all think it here [that it was offside]. Everybody at home thinks it. FIFA are the host broadcaster and they have the semi-automatic decision that they can show us. There is a massive question over that because it is offside in my eyes until they prove me different. Why are we still not seeing conclusive evidence?"

That is the row in a nutshell. Sportsmole.co.uk treated the Freuler moment as offside before the penalty was awarded. bundesliga.com reported the decision as a penalty after VAR had checked the incident, so the controversy is not neatly settled even after the final whistle.

How Qatar found a way back

Julen Lopetegui kept the focus on the result after the game, saying: "If after a game like that we can take our first World Cup point, it means a lot to the players and to the country." The point came from a late break, when Homam Al-Amin curled in a cross and Khoukhi rose to head Qatar level in the 90+4 minute.

Switzerland had the bigger share of the game, with 68% possession, 25 shots and 3.28 xGoals, while Qatar finished on 0.76 xGoals. Mahmud Abunad's five crucial stops helped keep the game alive long enough for the late equaliser. Even so, the cleanest takeaway is simple: Switzerland had the control, but Qatar took the point.

Qatar will not care much about how it looked in the moment, only that the draw is now in the books. The next question is whether they can back it up after a night that began with VAR and ended with Khoukhi in the 90+4 minute.