Croatian supporters threw bottles on the pitch after their side saw a late equaliser ruled out against Portugal in the World Cup. Josko Gvardiol thought he’d forced extra time before he was judged to be offside.
The dramatic scenes unfolded as the Manchester City defender sent the ball into the net in the 113th minute. Gvardiol capitalised on a flick from Portugal’s Renato Veiga but Igor Matanovic was deemed to have touched the ball first with his team-mate in an offside position.
Jubilant celebrations quickly turned to disbelief as VAR was brought into the situation. Espen Aspas clarified that Matanovic touched the ball and as a result, that Gvardiol was offside.
Croatian fans were heartbroken and angry, and began throwing bottles and cans onto the pitch in Toronto. The game was unable to restart until the deluge had been cleared, despite just seconds remaining on the clock.
“It’s offside,” explained Matt Upson on BBC. “It doesn’t matter if there’s another touch from Veiga because of that initial header.”
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Mark Chapman revealed that former referee Darren Cann said that Matanovic definitely touched the ball.
“He was offside when the ball was last played by a teammate and the ball was deflected by the defender and not deliberately played, so the offside stands,” he read.
“Snicko, that 100% proves that he touched it with the flick-on.”
View 2 ImagesBottles littered the pitch(Image: Getty Images)
Upson was not convinced. “Controversial from my view unless VAR have been looking at an angle we have not been seeing,” he said.
“From what I can see, I don’t see any change of direction of the ball. What the telling thing is the spin on the ball doesn’t change and it looks like Matanovic hasn’t touched that ball.”
Portugal’s winning goal ahd only arrived in the 94th minute when Goncalo Ramos scored a creative head from a spectacular Rafael Leao cross. Cristiano Ronaldo had earlier scored his first goal in the knockout stages of the World Cup when he netted from the penalty spot to cancel out Ivan Perisic’s opening effort.
Portugal take on Spain in the last 16 of the tournament.
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