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Persistence has been rewarded as Goncalo Ramos was the hero to push Portugal into the round of 16 following a dramatic 2-1 victory over Croatia. On the anniversary of Diogo Jota's death, with the match kicking off at midnight local time in Portugal, it was an emotional match for the victors as he was an honorary 27th man on their roster, and after the match, Cristiano Ronaldo donned Jota's number 21 jersey in remembrance.
Roberto Martinez made the big call of taking Cristiano Ronaldo off late in the game as Portugal were chasing a winning goal, and he was rewarded as Rafael Leao delivered a peach of a cross to send Portugal to a date with Spain off Ramos' header.
But Croatia looked to have found an equalizer late on in added time on a Josko Gvardiol finish from close, but a controversial VAR call overturned the decision. Due to the chip in the ball detecting that Croatia had touched the ball on the cross that led to the ruled-out equalizer, it was overturned due to offside positioning in what will be a major talking point in the coming days.
Croatia opened the scoring via Ivan Perisic, but after conceding a second-half penalty to let Portugal back in the match, they couldn't hold on. Ronaldo finally scored his first knockout stage goal for Portugal from the spot at 41 and also became the oldest ever outfield player to appear in a match during this game in Toronto, but Portugal struggled most of the second half with what Croatia threw at them.
But with an immensely talented squad, Portugal were able to outlast the Croats and deliver when it mattered as they tried to win Ronaldo his first World Cup title. The path to that will be a tough one now, needing to go through one of the favorites to win the entire tournament in Spain. Those two will square off on June 6 in Dallas.
With Croatia being knocked out, it may be the end of Luka Modric's illustrious international career, as he is now 40, but his side gave it all on the pitch.
How'd the equalizer get overturned?
After Gvardiol thought he had leveled the match in the 103rd minute of play, the referee went to the monitor to check an offside decision. Croatia striker Igor Matanovic was deemed to be in an offside position and unintentionally touched the ball, altering its path to Mario Pasalic, who was offside when he touched the ball to Gvardiol, but that's where it gets strange. It was only a slight deflection, so it was picked up via a chip in the ball, which is new to this World Cup. The chip technology can pick up changes in the flight of the ball, and because of that, they also have to be charged before games.
FIFA explained it after the game, posting on social media that "it was proven that contact was made by Croatia's #20 Igor Matanović in the build-up to the goal against Portugal, allowing the referee to correctly determine offside and disallow the goal. IMU sensors housed within the Trionda ball are capable of determining any slight contact, displayed to viewers in the broadcast as a 'heartbeat graphic,' and allowing officials an unprecedented level of data to make fast, accurate decisions."
Cricket has similar technology to determine if a ball comes in contact with a bat, called a snickometer, but that uses microphones instead of judging where a ball is in space in time, like the motion sensor chip that has been embedded in the Adidas TRIONDA World Cup ball. It's something that ensures accurate determinations of even the slightest touches, and it became a major player in the end of this match.
