Colombia thought it had found the winner in the 90+1 minute against Portugal, but Dávinson Sánchez’s header was wiped out by VAR and the match stayed at 1-0. Juan Fernando Quintero had curled the cross into the area, Sánchez rose to meet it, and the assistant referee lifted the flag for a possible offside before the review confirmed the call.
That is why René Higuita is being searched now: the disallowed goal has turned into one of those clips people replay, pause and argue over. The images made Sánchez look ahead by almost a fingernail, enough for the decision to land with force and to send Colombian fans into outrage while social media filled with jokes and mockery.
For Colombia, the call mattered beyond the replay. The team finished first in grupo K after the match against Portugal, which left it in a better position for dieciseisavos and kept a more manageable path than the one that would have come with Germany, France, Croatia or Spain. Néstor Lorenzo’s side had already done the work on the field; the late header would only have made the margin feel more comfortable.
The friction is in the frame itself. VAR and the assistant referee treated the play as offside, but the pictures offered little room between Sánchez and the line, just the kind of narrow margin that fuels arguments long after the final whistle. One internauta joked that Sánchez should have tucked in his toes, and another compared his boot to the shoes of Bob Patiño, which is how a serious decision became internet material in minutes.
Colombia now moves on with the ruling still hanging over the night and with Ghana next, on Friday, 3 July, at 8:30 p. m., local time in Colombia. The unresolved question is not whether the goal would have changed the mood; it already did. It is whether a decision measured by almost nothing can keep deciding matches this loudly.
