World Cup 2026: Zlatan Ibrahimović believes that Croatia was “robbed” against Portugal.

Zlatan Ibrahimović did not hold back after Croatia’s elimination against Portugal (2-1) in the Round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup. The former Swedish international believes that the Croatian team was unfairly denied an equalizing goal in the dying moments of the match. While Portugal secured its ticket to the Round of 16 with its 2-1 win, the end of the match was marked by a fierce controversy. After Gonçalo Ramos had scored the second Portuguese goal, Josko Gvardiol thought he had equalized to 2-2 in stoppage time.

However, after a video assistant intervention, the goal was disallowed. FIFA explained that the “Connected Ball” technology detected a slight contact from Igor Matanović before the goal, resulting in an offside position. This decision is one that Zlatan Ibrahimović does not understand. In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, the former striker criticized the use of VAR sharply. “It was a fantastic match ruined at the end by VAR. I saw nothing irregular about the 2-2 goal. VAR disallowed it, but for me, it was a robbery. Either the ball sensor wasn’t working, or something went wrong, because Renato Veiga touched the ball. That means there was no offside. Look at the footage: the Croatian number 20 does not touch the ball and does not alter its trajectory at all. It is Portuguese number 13, Renato Veiga, who touches it.”

These statements are likely to fuel the debate surrounding the use of new refereeing technologies, which have already been at the center of several discussions since the beginning of the 2026 World Cup.