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 scored, however, Ha Seok-ju was sent off for a bad challenge from behind, and Mexico leveled the score through half-time substitute Ricardo Peláez. With approximately 15 minutes remaining, Luis Hernández put Mexico in the lead with a simple tap-in. Hernández then went on to complete the victory after scoring Mexico's third goal. South Korea had to wait four more years to record their first ever victory in a World Cup: its next game against the Netherlands was a heavy 0–5 defeat, the third-worst loss in the nation's World Cup history. Its third game was against Belgium. A big win would