History of the FIFA World Cup as earning the Bronze Ball award. He led Bulgaria to a shock 2-1 win over defending champions Germany in the quarter-finals, before losing 2–1 to Italy and losing the third place play-off to Sweden, 4–0. The 1998 World Cup was held in France, and had an expanded format featuring 32 teams. Iran beat the Maldives in qualification by the widest margin in World Cup history – 17–0. In the finals, the second round match between France and Paraguay witnessed the first golden goal in World Cup history, as Laurent Blanc scored to give the hosts a 1–0 victory. Hosts France
Asian nations at the FIFA World Cup received his second yellow card for diving in the penalty area. Ten-men Italy finally fell to a 117th-minute, golden goal header scored by Ahn Jung-hwan, who at the time was ironically playing for Italian club Perugia. In the quarter-finals, Spain were unable to win a second consecutive penalty shootout, losing to South Korea after having two goals controversially disallowed in normal time, with South Korea becoming the first (and, as of 2018, the only) team from outside Europe and the Americas to reach the last four of a World Cup. Four minutes after the restart, a Spanish goal was disallowed,