Croatia’s World Cup campaign ended in the 103rd minute of a round-of-32 tie in Toronto when a dramatic equaliser by Joško Gvardiol was ruled out for offside after a sensor inside the match ball detected a touch so faint that television replays could not confirm it. Portugal, who had led 2-1 through a Gonçalo Ramos header in added time, held on to win and advanced to a last-eight meeting with Spain, while Croatia were eliminated at the first knockout stage.

The sequence that decided the contest began with a cross from Ivan Perišić. As the ball arced into the area, Croatian forward Igor Matanović attempted to flick it on with his head. The ball then fell to Mario Pašalić, who squared for Gvardiol to score. The goal was initially awarded, but the VAR, Espen Eskås, was called to review the build-up. Data from the Adidas Trionda ball’s inertial measurement unit (IMU) — a chip that records contact 500 times per second — showed a micro-touch from Matanović, placing Pašalić in an offside position. The on-field decision was reversed, and the match ended moments later.

FIFA issued a statement explaining that the IMU sensors “are capable of detecting any contact, no matter how slight,” and that the data is displayed to viewers as a “heartbeat” graphic. The technology, first used at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, has been refined for the 2026 tournament. Matanović himself later acknowledged the contact. “Honestly, I think I felt a little contact with my hair,” he said. “I asked the referee, I wasn’t 100 per cent sure. He told me they have a chip in the ball, that there was a light touch and therefore it was offside.”

Reactions to the decision divided along predictable lines. Croatian head coach Zlatko Dalić argued that VAR “kills emotions, it kills everything inside you,” a sentiment echoed by Croatian media, which ran headlines suggesting that if Matanović had been bald, the goal would have stood. Portuguese coach Roberto Martínez, by contrast, called the episode “a clear moment” and said the chip left no room for debate. Across Spanish-language and Arabic-language coverage, the incident was framed as a test case for the expanding role of micro-sensor technology in officiating, with some commentators questioning whether the game is ceding too much authority to machines.

Portugal now face Spain in the quarter-finals on Monday, a fixture that pits the reigning European champions against a side that eliminated Austria 3-0. Croatia, whose golden generation reached the final in 2018 and the semi-finals in 2022, exit a major tournament at the first knockout hurdle for the first time in four cycles, with the 40-year-old Luka Modrić possibly making his last World Cup appearance.