Croatia didn’t lose to Portugal on the field. At least that’s what they’re arguing. And they’re making that argument in an official letter to FIFA.
The round of 32 match at the 2026 World Cup ended 1-0, but the real controversy came in stoppage time. Josko Gvardiol thought he’d saved the game. A cross deflected, he lunged, and the ball ended up in the back of the net. Croatian players sprinted. Fans lost it. Then the goal got waved off.
The culprit wasn’t a linesman or a referee. It was a microchip inside the new Adidas Triodan ball. The Inertial Measurement Unit inside the ball detected that the ball had brushed against teammate Igor Matanovic’s hair before Gvardiol scored. Under the offside rule, that counts as playing the ball. So the goal was dead.
The HNS Fires Back
The Croatian Football Federation didn’t just take the loss quietly. They sent a formal complaint to FIFA president Gianni Infantino. It wasn’t about the referees blowing calls, the letter said. It was about the process itself.
Tomislav Pacakhad, the HNS spokesperson, laid it out: they believe the VAR protocol was mishandled on the penalty Portugal got. And more importantly, they think the offside call on Gvardiol’s goal was nonsense because Matanovic didn’t actually make a play on the ball. The chip just said he touched it, so the system went with that.
“We believe this is a misuse of technology,” Pacakhad said. “We welcome it in football, but this kind of application helps nobody.”
Croatian manager Zlatko Dalić was even blunter. “VAR kills emotions. It kills everything within you. We have gone too far.”
Portugal’s Boss Had No Complaints
Roberto Martinez, the Portugal manager, shrugged off the whole thing. He thought the decision was clean. “The balls have a chip now. The sensor shows the ball was touched. It’s a shame someone had to lose, but there’s no bad decision here,” he said.
So the technology did what it was designed to do. The question is whether that’s actually good for the game.
What Happens Next
This isn’t going away. The HNS wants a full explanation of every decision. FIFA is standing by the call. And as more tournaments use this tech, more teams are going to end up on the wrong side of a microchip’s judgment.
For Luka Modric, it’s a brutal ending. Going out against his old Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo in a tournament everyone keeps calling “The Last Dance” for a whole generation of aging stars. That’s a heavy way to go.
Croatia is already looking toward the next World Cup. But the letter is sent. The complaint is on record. And they’re not about to forget what the chip took from them.
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