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 qualification group. Head coach: Jean Vincent Grégoire M'Bida scored the first ever goal for Cameroon in the World Cup Finals when he hooked the ball home with his right foot past the advancing goalkeeper from inside the six yard box after the ball had been headed on to him from a high ball inside the penalty area. The goal came one minute after Italy had taken the lead in the game after missing several chances to score in the first half. Head coach: Valery Nepomnyashchy Omam-Biyik scored with a downward header from six yards out the after the ball had