Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said VAR «takes the joy out of football» after seeing his team deny an injury-time equalizer in Thursday’s 2-1 World Cup defeat to Portugal.
Croatian players thought they had grabbed an incredible equalizer when Josko Gvardiol poked the ball into the net in the 13th minute of stoppage time in Toronto.
But VAR disallowed the goal after a chip embedded in the match ball discovered it had just brushed Croatian striker Igor Matanovic with Mario Pasalic in an offside position in the build-up.
When asked afterwards whether he thought technology and VAR decisions in football had gone too far, Dalic broadly agreed.
“You could see to what extent emotions have literally been killed, and all in all these decisions take you back and actually take the joy out of football,” Dalic said at a news conference, according to a FIFA interpreter.
«I’m not saying VAR can’t help sometimes, but it kills the emotions, it kills everything inside you, it kills what you experience and it’s not easy to deal with all this.»
READ ALSO | Why was Croatia’s goal disallowed in injury time?
The connected ball chip technology used to rule out Gvardiol’s goal has already been deployed at this World Cup, during Sweden’s group match against Tunisia last month.
On that occasion, Mattias Svanberg saw a goal disallowed for offside before VAR overturned the decision after determining the ball had received a light touch from teammate Alexander Isak, who had played it onside.
Portuguese coach Roberto Martinez said there was no debate over Croatia’s disallowed goal.
“The message is very clear: the balls now have a chip, and it is very clear and that is why VAR intervened,” Martinez said.
“There is no subjective opinion; the chip of the ball shows that Matanovic has a touch, and if that happens, Pasalic is offside.
«It’s a shame that one of the teams had to lose today, but there was no bad decision, no unfortunate decision today. It was clear and the technology helped. We were lucky with a moment, but it was a clear moment.»
Published on July 3, 2026
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