Zlatan Ibrahimović was particularly scathing in his criticism of the refereeing after Portugal’s 2-1 victory over Croatia to advance to the World Cup’s Round of 32. The Swede—once a star player and now a Fox analyst—considered the disallowed Croatian equalizer in stoppage time a blatant injustice, while also mentioning… favoritism toward Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo throughout the tournament.
“Soccer can be incredibly harsh. I don’t care what anyone says—I believe Croatia has every right to feel like they were robbed. I watched the replay, and I still don’t see enough to convince me that Gvardiol was offside. When you disallow a goal in the final seconds of a World Cup knockout match, it has to be obvious. To me, it wasn’t obvious. That goal should have counted. Croatia thought it had saved itself. The players celebrated, the fans went wild, and within seconds, it was all taken away from them. These are the moments that break teams. Instead of talking about an incredible last-minute equalizer, we’re talking about yet another VAR controversy. Portugal will be celebrating because they advanced, and congratulations to them. “But if I were Croatia, I’d be leaving this stadium feeling that something was taken away from my soccer tonight,” he said initially.
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“They suspended Cristiano’s three-match ban. They didn’t send off two Portuguese players against the Congo for a foul that deserved a red card. A few days ago, they disallowed a clear winning goal for Colombia, and now they’ve disallowed a goal by Croatia that could have given them the win in the match. “Why does FIFA show such favoritism toward Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal?” he added.
*photo source: AP
