البرتغال vs كرواتيا

At a Portugal corner with Portugal trailing Croatia 1-0, a Croatia defender wrapped both arms around Portugal's #13 and dragged him to the ground before he could attack the ball. After a VAR review, the referee awarded a penalty to Portugal. This is the correct decision: holding an opponent to prevent him challenging is a direct-free-kick offence, and inside the area that is a penalty. It is a clear, one-sided hold — a bear-hug and a drag-down, not the mutual jostling that is tolerated — so VAR was right to flag a clear missed foul and the referee was right to give it. The decision is straightforward on its own. Its wider importance is what it proves about consistency: this is the same category of offence as the clear holds on Germany's Goretzka and Pavlović earlier in the tournament, which were NOT penalised. The correct call here demonstrates that the officiating can and does identify and punish blatant corner holds — which means the failure to penalise the identical Germany holds was an error, not a defensible "we let those go" standard. CORRECT DECISION, high confidence — and, by being correct, it is the clearest evidence that the earlier German holds should have been penalties too.