The official reasoning was that a touch from Igor Matanovic was recorded by the sensors inside the ball, which meant Mario Pasalic, who provided the assist for Josko Gvardiol’s goal, was deemed offside. In the end, it meant that Portugal, who themselves scored earlier in added time, were the victors and will face Spain in the round of 16.
Understandably, it’s sparked plenty of debate, with Dalic having been left fuming by the result. Speaking post-match, he remarked: “It was very bad refereeing. But Croatia lost. I’m not going to find any excuses. We could have won this earlier.
“You were able to see to what extent emotions have literally been killed, and altogether, these decisions take you back and actually take the joy out of football. I’m not saying that sometimes VAR can’t be of help, but it kills the emotions, it kills everything, it kills what you are experiencing, and it’s not easy to deal with all of this.”
Such strong comments on the standard of refereeing could see Dalic reprimanded by football’s governing body. He could be fined if FIFA deem his comments to constitute improper conduct.
There was added emotion attached to the Croatia loss, given it will almost certainly be the last time we see Luka Modric on a World Cup pitch. Having made his debut in Germany 20 years ago, the midfielder has been one of the competition’s finest players and leaves behind an illustrious World Cup career.
Commenting on the veteran’s future, Dalic said: “Well, this was probably his last World Cup. And I’m sorry that it ended this way.”
Meanwhile, on his own future, he replied: “I’m not afraid for the future of the Croatian team. We have a lot of young players coming in and some of them have shown the quality today. We’ve come to an end of a wonderful era. And some new beginnings await us. God knows what will happen in the next World Cup, but we’ll talk about it in Croatia.”
Portugal march on to the round-of-16, where they will come up against one of the favourites, Spain. For Croatia, their next international assignment will be in the Nations League, with attention switching towards Euro 2028 qualifying in early 2027.