1998 FIFA World Cup Final penalties after Italy's Luigi Di Biagio struck his penalty onto the crossbar. In the semi-finals, France faced tournament surprise Croatia. After a goal-less first half, Croatia took the lead in the first minute of the second half through Davor Šuker, his fifth goal of the tournament. France responded immediately with Lilian Thuram scoring his first international goal. Thuram then added a second twenty minutes from time to send France to their first ever World Cup final. The match ended in controversy however when Laurent Blanc was sent off after a skirmish with Croatia's Slaven Bilić. Bilić had sunk down to
Cameroon at the FIFA World Cup group, Netherlands, advanced to face the Group F runners-up, Slovakia, while Japan, as Group E runners-up, faced Group F winners Paraguay. Cameroon was the first team to be eliminated in the World Cup, following their 2–1 defeat by Denmark on 19 June 2010. "All times local (UTC+02)" Cameroon's top goalscorer at FIFA World Cup finals, Roger Milla, also holds the record as oldest player to ever score at a FIFA World Cup. When he scored his goal during the 1-6 defeat against Russia in 1994, he was aged 42 years and 39 days. Roger Milla won the Bronze Boot in