Plastic bottles rained onto the pitch as Croatia fans vented their fury. Their World Cup dream had just been extinguished by a spike on a soundwave graph – a Snickometer decision BBC commentator Steve Wilson called “one of the biggest VAR decisions there has ever been”.
Trailing 2-1 to Portugal after a chaotic second half, Croatia thought they had equalised deep into stoppage time. Josko Gvardiol tapped home from close range in the 13th minute of added time, sparking wild celebrations. On the bench, Cristiano Ronaldo – who had earlier scored his first ever World Cup knockout goal before being substituted – looked crestfallen.
“Cricket-style Snicko technology rules out Croatia's last-gasp equaliser, ending Modric's World Cup and saving Ronaldo's.”
The goal was immediately checked for offside. The critical question: had Croatia’s Igor Matanovic touched the ball in the build-up while in an offside position? Visual replays appeared inconclusive. Norwegian referee Espen Eskas reviewed replay after replay. Then came the decisive evidence: a distinct spike on Snicko technology, adapted from cricket to detect the faintest contact via the microchip inside Adidas’s Trionda match ball.
Fifa later released a statement confirming the technology proved Matanovic touched the ball. The goal was disallowed. It was almost the last kick of the match.
“The hyper-precise technology and prolonged video reviews kill the genuine emotion,” Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic said after the defeat, expressing deep frustration with the refereeing.
The decision sparked chaotic scenes. Plastic bottles were thrown onto the pitch by furious Croatia supporters as their team’s World Cup journey ended in the cruellest fashion. For Croatia’s 40-year-old legend Luka Modric, it was surely the end of his World Cup career. For Ronaldo, the journey continues – just hours after his sister called the tournament his “last dance”.
Earlier, Portugal had taken the lead through Ronaldo’s historic strike, but Croatia fought back to level before Portugal regained the advantage. The match had everything: disallowed goals, a debated penalty, Ronaldo intrigue, and VAR controversy that will be debated for years.
Snicko – more familiar to cricket fans – has been used sparingly in football, but earlier in the tournament Sweden benefited from the same technology against Tunisia. The Trionda ball’s internal chip sends real-time touch data to the VAR hub, allowing officials to make highly accurate offside decisions.
Portugal advance to the last 16. For Modric, the final whistle came with a spike on a graph that no one in the stadium saw coming.