By admin 
Thursday’s World Cup knockout game between Portugal and Croatia turned into a heavyweight fight in the second half as Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric – two legends and former teammates – led their teams in a hard-fought game that came down to the wire. Ultimately it was Ronaldo and Portugal that moved on, but not before a LOT of controversy.
Croatia’s Ivan Perisic opened the scoring with a brilliant goal in the 53rd minute. But in the 68th minute, a VAR review determined that a Croatia defender held a Portugal player during a free kick attempt, and a penalty kick was awarded to Ronaldo, who buried it to equalize.
The two teams seemed primed to play into extra time until Goncalo Ramos found the back of the net in the 94th minute. With some stoppage time minutes still remaining, Croatia seemed to break through after 100 minutes had been played – only for another VAR review to determine that a Croatian player had been offsides.
Rigged?
Fans were furious that the goal – which to the eyes of most fans appeared to be fine and didn’t break the offsides rules – was ultimately disallowed. Some took to X and declared that the referees in the game must have rigged it outright.
“Apparently FIFA is scrubbing this video from the web. Did you notice on ALL replays, it was a far away side angle during VAR where you’re told ‘if he touched the ball he was offsides’ but they missed the spot- the Croatia player never makes contact with the ball. Rigged, and sloppy #WorldCup,” one user on X noted.
“ALERT: The Croatian player did not touch the ball and Croatia’s goal should have been valid. One of the greatest robberies in football history,” wrote another.
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“He was in an offsides position but it was touched by the Portugal player before Croatia scored. Not offsides,” a third complained.
“If it touched number 20 it was on a quantum level. Absolutely ridiculous decision.”
Had the goal counted, the two sides likely would have gone into another 30 minutes of extra time. Instead, Croatia was sent home and likely marking the end of Luka Modric’s international career.
Portugal move on to the Round of 16, where they are now set to play arch-rival Spain.
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This story was originally published July 3, 2026 at 7:42 AM.