Croatia's veteran playmaker Luka Modric applauds the fans while making way off the pitch after their Fifa World Cup campaign came to an end against Portugal.
Image: AFP
Head coach Zlatko Dalić lamented that VAR is systematically taking "the joy out of football" after seeing his side have a dramatic, stoppage-time equaliser cruelly disallowed in their 2-1 World Cup defeat to Portugal.
Croatia's players and bench thought they had snatched an improbable equaliser when Joško Gvardiol alertly prodded the ball into the net in the 13th minute of added time at Toronto's BMO Field.
However, VAR subsequently chalked off the strike after a specialised microchip embedded within the match ball detected that it had faintly brushed Croatia striker Igor Matanović, whilst Mario Pašalić was in an offside position during the frantic build-up phase.
Asked post-match whether he felt technological intervention in football had gone too far, Dalić broadly agreed with the sentiment.
"You were able to see to what extent emotions have been literally killed, and altogether these decisions take you back and actually take the joy out of football," Dalić stated in his press conference via a FIFA interpreter.
"I'm not saying that sometimes VAR can't be of help, but it kills the emotions, it kills everything within you, it kills what you are experiencing, and it's not easy to deal with all of this."
The "connected ball" chip technology utilised to rule out Gvardiol's late strike had already been famously deployed at this World Cup finals during Sweden's group-stage fixture against Tunisia last month.
On that particular occasion, Mattias Svanberg saw a goal ruled out for offside before VAR overturned the decision, determining the ball had taken a slight touch off team-mate Alexander Isak, which had legally played him onside.
Conversely, Portugal head coach Roberto Martínez insisted there was absolutely no room for debate surrounding Croatia's disallowed effort.
"The message is very clear: the balls now have a chip, it's completely clear, and that's why the VAR intervened," Martínez countered. "There is no subjective opinion — the chip inside the ball shows there is a touch from Matanović, and when that happens, Pašalić is offside.
"It's a shame that one of the teams had to lose today, but there was no bad decision, no unlucky call today. It was entirely clear-cut and technology helped. We were fortunate with the timing, but it was a clear moment."
AFP