Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 on July 2, 2026, after VAR overturned a late equalizer and ruled Mario Pasalic offside, sending Portugal into the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 16 and ending Croatia's run in Toronto Stadium in Toronto, Ontario.
The match turned on a tight finish that left Croatia thinking it had salvaged extra time before the review cut it off. Cristiano Ronaldo had already dragged Portugal level from the penalty spot in the 67th minute after Ivan Perisic scored first for Croatia, and Gonçalo Ramos then headed in the winner in the 94th minute.
Ronaldo's goal carried its own line in the record book. At 41 years and 147 days, he became the oldest player to appear in a World Cup knockout stage match and the oldest to score in one, a milestone that sat beside the result as the reason the game drew so much attention on July 2. Luka Modric, meanwhile, finished his fifth World Cup after Croatia's loss, a quiet ending for a player who had shared the field with Ronaldo in a matchup between two men aged 40 or older for the first time in the same match.
The VAR call was the point that changed everything. Croatia's equalizer came just before the end of stoppage time, but the review showed Pasalic was offside, with the ball-chip system used to identify when the ball was touched helping officials trace the sequence that led to the ruling. By the tournament's own count, it was the 10th goal overruled by VAR so far in the World Cup.
That is what made this more than a routine knockout result. Portugal escaped with a 2-1 win in a match that had swung twice, while Croatia was left with a stoppage-time goal that never stood and a World Cup exit that came down to a fraction of a play. For readers tracking the next round, Portugal now moves on toward the Round of 16, where interest is already shifting to what comes after the Croatia win in the 2026 World Cup.
