Portugal Edge Croatia After Late VAR Drama at World Cup

Portugal - 2

Croatia - 1

In a thrilling round of 32 World Cup encounter between Portugal and Croatia, Goncalo Ramos headed a winner in stoppage time and Josko Gvardiol scored an equaliser, which was controversially disallowed as Portugal went on to win the contest 2-1 in Toronto.

Christiano Ronaldo scored his first World Cup knockout goal, cancelling out Ivan Perisic’s opening in a match that saw four efforts ruled out for offside, including what could have been potentially the goal of the tournament contender for the Portuguese star, Ronaldo.

Led by Ronaldo’s brilliant play, Portugal dominated the first half of the game and could have taken a lead as early as the fourth minute when Bruno Fernandes was picked out by Rafael Leao, only to be denied twice - first by a brilliant save from Dominic Livakovic and then by a desperate defensive block.

Later, Christiano Ronalo took a freekick from distance and the crowd anticipated another moment of brilliance from him but he could not get past the wall and Renato Veiga headed over from Nuno Mendes’ corner kick after being left unmarked from a distance of eight yards from the goal post.

Croatia defended valiantly but the team was struggling to get past their own half as Ronaldo failed to turn in Joao Cancelo’s swerving cross in the 30th minute. After the half time mark, Croatia introduced Igor Matanovic, and this move paid well for the Croatians as they seemed to be a better attacking force and within three minutes after the break, Mateo Kovacic made his way into the Portuguese box but goalkeeper Diogo Costa deflected the ball wide with his foot.

The Croatians eventually took the lead in the 53rd minute of the game, thanks to the brilliant finish from Ivan Perisic who netted the ball after Josip Stanisic’s cross evaded Matanovic. Just three minutes later, Croatia doubled their lead after Matanovic turned in Mario Pasalic’s low cross, but the replies showed that the latter had mistimed his run, and was ruled offside, denying Croatia their second goal.

Leao thudded a long-range effort against the crossbar and a few moments later Portugal had their goal ruled out. The 41-year-old veteran, Ronaldo produced a moment of magic for Portugal to bring Cancelo’s cross-field ball under his spell and finish past Livakovic, only for VAR to rule out the goal since had moved a fraction early.

However, Ronaldo’s frustration did not last long. From a corner, Nikola Vlasic inexplicably wrestled Veiga to the ground and referee Espen Eskas awarded a penalty after a VAR review, which Ronaldo netted down the middle for the first World Cup knockout goal of his career.

Kovacic came close to scoring again for Croatia in the 75th minute, bending a low effort against the post after he ran through the midfield, only to be tipped over by Costa. With only 10 minutes remaining before full time, Luka Sucic converted Kovacic’s ball only to be denied again by the referee raising the offside flag. Ronaldo was clearly unhappy as he was substituted for Ruben Neves a few minutes later.

But Portugal snatched it in stoppage time when substitute Goncalo Ramos rose high to head Leao's cross into the back of the net. But the drama did not end there. Gvardiol prodded in what looked to be a leveller in the 12th minute of added time, but the referee ruled that Matanovic got the faintest of flicks before the ball found its way to Pasalic in an offside position.