TORONTO: Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said VAR is taking “the joy out of football” after seeing his team have a stoppage time equalizer disallowed in their 2-1 World Cup defeat to Portugal on Thursday.
Croatia’s players thought they had grabbed an incredible equalizer when Josko Gvardiol prodded the ball into the net in the 13th minute of stoppage time in Toronto.
But VAR chalked off the goal after a chip embedded in the match ball detected that it had just brushed Croatia striker Igor Matanovic while Mario Pasalic was in an offside decision in the build-up.
Asked afterwards if he felt technology and VAR decisions in football had gone too far, Dalic broadly agreed.
“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,” Dalic said in a press conference, according to a FIFA interpreter.
