Croatia’s Igor Matanovic earned praise for his response after a controversial VAR decision against Portugal.
Igor Matanovic has openly said he made a “slight contact” with the ball during the controversial moment that led to Croatia’s late goal against Portugal being ruled out.
Roberto Martinez’s Portugal booked their spot in the World Cup last 16 with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Goncalo Ramos, winning 2-1 against Croatia on Thursday night.
Croatia, though, will feel unlucky after Josko Gvardiol’s stoppage-time equalizer was disallowed following a long VAR check.
When a cross came in from the left, it first looked like Matanovic missed his header. Then the ball touched Portugal’s Renato Veiga and bounced to Mario Pasalic, who helped set up Gvardiol’s goal. But after reviewing, officials found that sensors in the Adidas Trionda ball detected a slight touch by Matanovic, making Pasalic offside in the build-up.
FIFA confirmed the ball’s sensors proved Matanovic did touch the ball.
“Data from the Connected Ball Technology inside the Adidas Trionda ball showed contact by Croatia’s Igor Matanovic before the goal against Portugal,” FIFA said. “This allowed the referee to correctly call offside and disallow the goal. The ball’s sensors can pick up even slight touches, helping officials make fast, accurate calls.”
After Croatia’s exit, Matanovic honestly shared his thoughts on the incident.
“To be honest, I think I barely touched it with my hair,” he said, according to A Bola. “I asked the referee because I wasn’t sure. He told me the ball has a chip and it showed a slight touch, so the goal was offside.”
“It’s hard to find the right words after the game,” Matanovic added. “We played well in the second half and deserved more. I haven’t seen the penalty yet, but with three goals, an offside, and hitting the post, we were really unlucky today.”
While FIFA confirmed the offside call was right, Croatia’s coach Zlatko Dalic was frustrated by many decisions going against his team.
“The refereeing was very bad. Not one foul or interruption went our way,” Dalic said. “But since we lost, we don’t have much right to complain. Sorry about that.
“First, congratulations to Portugal, and good luck to them in the rest of the tournament. In the second half, we turned the game around and created many chances, so we didn’t deserve this result.
“I’m proud of the boys, but honestly, we got lucky in a couple of moments in previous games.”