The match saw Portugal lead 2-1 in the fourth minute of stoppage time, after Gonzalo Ramos scored a goal with his head, before the Croatian team believed it had equalized minutes later through Joshko Gvardiol.
The attack came as a result of a ball played by Ivan Perišić inside the penalty area, which bounced off Renato Vega and reached Mario Pašalić, who set it up directly for Gvardiol to slot into the net. The referee initially awarded the goal, while television replays showed that Igor Matanovic appeared as if he had not touched the ball with his head, which would have put Pasalic in a legal position.
However, Norwegian referee Espen Eskas received a warning from the VAR technology, after data issued by the technology integrated inside the official “Adidas Triunda” ball revealed that Matanovic touched the ball slightly before it reached Pasalic, which put the latter in an offside position during the build-up of the attack, so the goal was disallowed.
The technical replay showed a graph that included a slight increase in the indicator at the moment the ball reached Matanovic, indicating that contact had occurred, which ended Croatia’s hopes of returning to the match, and granted Portugal the ticket to qualify for the round of 16.
FIFA explained in a statement published on its account on the X platform that the data provided by the connected ball technology confirmed the presence of contact by the Croatian player Igor Matanovic during the build-up of the attack, which enabled the referee to correctly calculate the offside situation and cancel the goal.
The International Federation added that the inertial measurement sensors built into the ball are capable of monitoring any touch, even if it is very slight, and this data is also displayed to viewers during the broadcast via a graph known as the “heartbeat,” which provides referees with a higher level of accuracy in making arbitration decisions.
