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
Egypt at the FIFA World Cup team of 1934 was only able to play one match because of a different tournament format. An Egyptian player with a notable record is goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary. On 25 June 2018, he became the oldest player ever to appear in a World Cup match with 45 years and 5 months. He saved a penalty in the first half of the match against Saudi Arabia, but ultimately Egypt lost 1-2. Scoring twice at Egypt's first-ever World Cup match, their 2-4 defeat against Hungary, made Abdulrahman Fawzi the only African goal scorer at FIFA World Cup finals for decades. It took 84