Croatia’s stoppage-time equalizer against Portugal was disallowed after a VAR offside review, leaving the late goal out of the result in a chaotic World Cup match. The live World Cup 2026 update also carried a separate Switzerland-Algeria sequence that included Igor Matanović coverage through the broader match page.
Portugal and Croatia
The ruling came after Croatia had pushed through the final minutes and thought it had found a leveler. VAR intervened on offside, and the goal did not stand, which is the only match-changing decision the update page spelled out for Portugal and Croatia.
The page described the game as chaotic, and it placed the late VAR call at the center of that chaos. For readers tracking the match in real time, the practical takeaway was simple: Croatia’s late equalizer was wiped away, and the scoreline stayed where the review left it.
Switzerland Against Algeria
The same live coverage also reported Switzerland leading Algeria 2-0. Dan Ndoye scored Switzerland’s second goal, and Conor McNamara said on SBS, “What a start to the second half for Switzerland! They’ve got their eyes on the last 16 now … a horrible error from Algeria,” after the goal.
Fabian Rieder added a missed chance in the 80th minute, when he had a wide open goal but kicked it straight into the prone goalkeeper. That miss left Switzerland short of a third goal at the time, and the live page separately noted Billy Magnussen and Zach Galifianakis in the stands, along with Guy Parmelin watching from there in a red hat reading: “Switzerland. Great since 1291.”
World Cup 2026 Live Page
The update itself was first published on July 2, 2026, at 7.00pm and updated on July 3, 2026, at 4.43am. It bundled the Portugal and Croatia VAR call with the Switzerland-Algeria action, so readers following the page had two match threads to track at once.
For the Portugal match, the open question left by the update is the identity of the Croatia player whose stoppage-time equalizer was ruled out for offside. For the Switzerland match, the page already gave the key sequence: Ndoye scored, Rieder missed a third, and Switzerland stayed ahead at 2-0.
