High voltage drama of injury time, Portugal reached last 16 after defeating Croatia, Ronaldo did wonders

FIFA World Cup 2026: Football lovers got a double dose of thrill in the Round of 32. In a very exciting match played at the Toronto stadium, Portugal defeated Croatia 2-1. With this spectacular victory, Portugal has confirmed its place in the Round of 16 i.e. the last 16. The magic of legendary player Cristiano Ronaldo was also seen in the match.

On the other hand, the Spanish team also showed tremendous performance and defeated Austria by a huge margin of 3-0. This is the first time since winning the World Cup in 2010 that Spain has won a knock-out match in the history of the World Cup. Now in the Round of 16, the teams of Portugal and Spain will face each other on July 7.

The fate of the match changed in the last minutes

This match played between Portugal and Croatia was not easy. Till the first half, both the teams could not score a single goal. The match changed at the beginning of the second half, when Croatia’s Perisic scored a goal in the 53rd minute to give his team a 1-0 lead. After this goal, Portugal gave its full strength.

In the 64th minute of the match, Portugal got a penalty, which their star player Cristiano Ronaldo converted into a goal without making any mistake and brought the score to 1-1. In the 81st minute of the game, Ruben Neves came on the field in place of Ronaldo. The real excitement started after the 90 minutes of play were over.

Big drama of VAR in injury time

After completion of 90 minutes of play, the referee gave 10 minutes of injury time, which extended to 18 minutes. Meanwhile, in the 94th minute, Ramos made a brilliant header on an excellent cross from Rafael Liao and put the ball straight into the net and put Portugal ahead 2-1.

After this, Croatia also counterattacked and started celebrating after scoring a goal in the 115th minute. But Portugal appealed for off-side. When checked by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), the Croatian was found to be off-side. The referee immediately canceled the goal and Portugal won the match 2–1.

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Spain crushed Austria in a one-sided match

In another match, the Spanish team played a one-sided game against Austria and won the match 3-0. The real hero of this match for Spain was Mikel Oyarsbal, who scored two brilliant goals in the 36th and then in the 89th minute of the game. Apart from him, Pedro Porro scored a goal for the team in the 66th minute.

Now the great match that football fans are waiting for will be played on the late night of 7th July. In the Round of 16, these two strong teams of Portugal and Spain will clash with each other at 12:30 pm Indian time. The excitement of the fans regarding this match is already at its peak.