{"id":215921,"date":"2026-07-04T06:06:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/cristiano-ronaldo-scores-first-world-cup-knockout-goal-substituted-as-var-spike-denies-croatia-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T06:06:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:06:45","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-scores-first-world-cup-knockout-goal-substituted-as-var-spike-denies-croatia-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/cristiano-ronaldo-scores-first-world-cup-knockout-goal-substituted-as-var-spike-denies-croatia-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo scores first World Cup knockout goal, substituted as VAR spike denies Croatia – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Cup
FIFA World
Cup 2026
A substituted Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates with Goncalo Ramos Getty Images<\/span>
Goncalo Ramos headed in a stoppage-time winner as Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 and kept alive Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s hopes of winning the World Cup. The late goal broke Croatian hearts in another knockout game packed with late drama.
The 41-year-old Ronaldo, a five-times Ballon d\u2019Or winner and one of the game\u2019s greatest players, was substituted on 80 minutes having scored his first knockout goal for his country. It was a big decision by Portugal coach Roberto Martinez but paid off when Ramos headed in Rafael Leao\u2019s cross.
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Portugal had the best chances of the first half with Bruno Fernandes seeing two shots blocked in quick succession and Ronaldo failing to get onto Pedro Neto\u2019s cross.
The game erupted in the second half and it was Croatia who started stronger with Mateo Kovacic hitting the side netting before Ivan Perisic was allowed to take three touches to control the ball in the box in on 53 minutes.
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Ronaldo thought he had scored his first World Cup knockout goal when he controlled a high ball and brilliantly flicked it over Dominik Livakovic only to be ruled offside but his big moment came soon after. Martinez made a quadruple change on the hour mark, leaving Ronaldo on, and from a corner Nikola Vlasic was judged to have brought down Renato Veiga off the ball after VAR intervention, with a penalty awarded to Portugal.
Ronaldo, playing in his ninth World Cup knockout game, scored from the spot on the 68th minute. A flurry of chances followed for both sides but seemingly to Ronaldo\u2019s surprise he was substituted on 80 minutes, shaking hands with Martinez and his team-mates before sitting on the side of the dugout.
The last 32 had already seen two games settled on penalties and two by stoppage-time goals and that became three when Ramos headed in and was embraced by Ronaldo.
In a truly incredible finish, Josko Gvardiol thought he had equalised in the 103rd minute only for a VAR review \u2014 using a snick-o-meter to show the ball had brushed Igor Matanovic on the way through \u2014 to rule Mario Pasalic, who assisted Gvardiol, offside.
Portugal will now face Spain in Dallas on July 6.
Here The Athletic<\/em>\u2019s Jack Lang, Thom Harris and Matt Slater break down the game\u2019s key talking points.
Goncalo Ramos is a strange player. He is clearly talented but also diffident, a bullfighter who seems to have little taste for blood. His previous big World Cup moment for Portugal \u2014 that superb hat-trick against Switzerland in Qatar \u2014 seemed set to propel his career to the next level. Instead, he\u2019s spent much of the time since sat on Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s bench.
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For Portugal, it has been the same. He has never managed to make an unignorable case for himself, even as Ronaldo has declined. There was no real question of him being a starter under Roberto Martinez when this tournament began.
Will his goal here change that? It remains to be seen. What we can say is that Ramos grabbed his opportunity with both hands. He only had one sight of goal \u2014 not a clear one, either \u2014 and he made no mistake, planting his header into the corner of Livakovic\u2019s net. If Portugal are to go all the way this summer, he has already written his name into the story.
\u201cWhen you need a late goal, you can call Goncalo Ramos,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cIt\u2019s important that we\u2019re growing into the competition. We showed the strength of our group today. Portugal are never down and out.\u201d
Jack Lang<\/em>
Croatia thought they had an equaliser, deep into additional time, when Josko Gvardiol bundled a finish home from close range. The goal was initially allowed to stand, but replays showed that Mario Pasalic, who passed to Gvardiol, was offside.
Simple as that? Not quite. Croatia thought that the goal should have stood because \u2014 in their view \u2014 Igor Matanovic, who had been jumping for a header in the middle prior to Pasalic\u2019s intervention, had not touched the ball. Pasalic had been onside when the original cross, from the left side, was played.
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The VAR, however, used the football equivalent of what is known in cricket as \u2018snick-o-meter\u2019, which signals whether a player (or a bat in cricket) has touched the ball, even if very lightly. There was a spike on the dial when the ball was next to Matanovic\u2019s head. In other words, he had touched it. Pasalic was offside. And Croatia were heartbroken.
Jack Lang<\/em>
After a first half of hopeful flicks and not much else, Ronaldo burst into life in the second. 60 minutes in, he had the ball in the net. Pedro Neto clipped a delightful pass over the Croatian backline for Ronaldo to run onto.
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The veteran\u2019s first touch was silky, redolent of Dennis Bergkamp. His second, a little nudged finish over the onrushing Dominik Livakovic, wasn\u2019t bad either. But as he ran away to the corner, pointing at his own chest and leaping into the air, he noticed the raised flag of the assistant referee on the far side. The party was postponed.
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Not for long, as it turned out. Nikola Vlasic wrestled Renato Veiga to the floor, gifting Portugal a penalty. Ronaldo took a series of deep breathes, muttered something to himself, and dinked his kick right down the middle, into the space vacated by the diving Livakovic.
It was, on the one hand, a completely unremarkable moment. Ronaldo has scored countless penalties across his career. This, though, was a personal milestone: Ronaldo\u2019s first goal in a World Cup knockout game, at the ninth time of asking. His celebration suggested he knew it, too.
Jack Lang<\/em>
In the chaotic aftermath of a second disallowed Croatia goal, a momentous change. Though no-one was to know at the time, this could well have been the unceremonious end of Cristiano Ronaldo on the international stage.
No player has made more appearances for their country in the history of the game. And barely 15 minutes after he, finally, scored his maiden knockout goal at a World Cup, he could not hide his disappointment at seeing his number raised.
He grimaced, looked to the skies and rolled his eyes, trudged towards the touchline with his head down before suddenly seeming to remember that team spirit thing he had going on in the group stage and giving Ruben Neves a reluctant high-five. He continued to shake his head as he high-fived teammates on the bench, clearly emotional at the thought of his Portugal career coming to an end.
The relief was palpable as Ramos rose highest to flick an incredible header past Dominik Livakovic and into the far corner. Ronaldo ran to give his No 9 an extra hug on the touchline as the celebrations wound down.
We will be seeing more of one of football\u2019s greats on the biggest stage, but sadly losing another in Luka Modric after his 201st Croatia cap. But after the most dramatic of disallowed goals at the death, it was a lot closer than Ronaldo would have liked.
Thom Harris<\/em>
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Elite sport is meant to be no country for old men, right?
It did not feel that way in Toronto, where most of the pre-match focus had been on the battle of quadragenarians, you-know-who and Luka Modric.
It seems that most of the Portugal defence\u2019s focus was elsewhere, too, when Croatia right-back Josep Stanisic made a fine overlapping run and dug out a decent cross.
With Ruben Dias and Renato Veiga manhandling Igor Matanovic and Nikola Vlasic, all looked well\u2026.hold on, who is this spritely chicken popping up at the back stick? I recognise him!
Yes, it was Ivan Perisic, 37 years young, taking two touches to control it, before slotting a hard, low shot past Diogo Costa to give Croatia the lead.
I don\u2019t know why we were all surprised, he has been doing this for his country since 2011. This was his 39th goal in his 158th game for Croatia.
During that time, he has scored World Cup goals against Cameroon, Mexico, Iceland, France, Japan and now Portugal.
Am I forgetting one? Oh, yeah, there was also that equaliser against England in the semi-final in 2018, which he immediately followed up with the assist for Mario Mandzukic\u2019s winner.
He has also scored 167 goals in 688 club appearances for a stellar cast of clubs that include Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Inter and now PSV.
Am I forgetting something? Oh yes, the exception to the Perisic rule. His bad-tempered and bang average stint with Tottenham, for whom he scored only once in 50 games.
What on earth happened there? The guy is lethal.
Matt Slater<\/em>
Ronaldo\u2019s goal was his 11th at the World Cup, making him the 11th man to score more than 10 times in the competition.