Croatia were left to rue the involvement of “Snicko” technology at the World Cup after being denied a stoppage-time equaliser by the video assistant referee (VAR).
Josko Gvardiol had appeared to keep his side’s hopes of progressing alive when he turned home from close range in the 13th minute of additional time to level the match with Portugal football at 2-2.
Gvardiol’s goal appeared to take the round of 32 clash to extra time only for VAR Jarred Gillett to intervene with the official checking the incident for offside.
GOAL DISALLOWED ❌
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 3, 2026
Croatia thought they'd equalised against Portugal to take the match to extra time, but after VAR review, it was disallowed! pic.twitter.com/jlqNHpzp5s
The decision concerned the involvement of Croatia’s Igor Matanovic, who attempted to head the ball in the build-up. If he had touched it, then the goal would be ruled out; if not, Gvardiol’s finish would stand.
The video evidence appeared inconclusive with Matanovic not obviously diverting the ball, but referee Espen Eskas was soon shown a spike on the Snickometer-style technology, and chalked the goal off.
“Snicko” detects if a ball has been touched – viewers of cricket, a sport in which it is more regularly used, will be familiar with the spikes in the soundwave used by umpires to determine if the ball has been struck by the bat.
Similar technology has been in place in football at the 2022 World Cup and 2024 European Championship, though, and at this tournament.
Fifa says that the Adidas Trionda match ball has a chip inside it that can detect when the ball has been touched, allowing precise data of every contact to be fed in real time to the VAR.
With the technology in use, once a touch was detected and with a Croatian in an offside position, the goal had to be ruled out, and Fifa confirmed that everything went as it should have.
Fifa explained the decision in a post on X which read: “According to the data provided by Connected Ball Technology housed within the @adidasfootball Trionda, the official match ball of the @FIFAWorldCup, it was proven that contact was made by Croatia’s #20 Igor Matanovic in the build up to the goal against Portugal, allowing the referee to correctly determine offside and disallow the goal.
“IMU sensors housed within the Trionda ball are capable of determining any slight contact, displayed to viewers in the broadcast as a ‘heartbeat graphic’, and allowing officials an unprecedented level of data to make fast, accurate decisions.”
However, Zlatko Dalic felt that VAR’s power had gone too far.
"I will not comment much about it but I will say the refereeing was very bad," the Croatia manager said.
"No fouls, no set-pieces on our side which should have been but that's no reason to talk about the defeat. It was very bad refereeing.
"You were able to see to what extent emotions had been killed and, altogether all these decisions take you back and actually take the joy out of football.
"VAR kills emotions, it kills everything within you. We have gone too far with VAR."
Successful Portugal boss Roberto Martinez disagreed.
“It's a shame one of the two teams had to lose," said the Spaniard. "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."
Portugal will take on Iberian neighbours Spain in the round of 16.
