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
2014 FIFA World Cup Group A very disappointed with their performance. On 1 July 2014, Cameroon officials announced that they had opened an investigation on claims that seven of the Cameroon's players were involved in fixing the result. However, FIFA said there was no evidence that there were any match fixing in any of Cameroon's matches. Olić, who previously scored a goal in the 2002 World Cup, became the second player to have a 12-year gap between World Cup goals, after Michael Laudrup in 1986 and 1998. Mandžukić became the first Croatian player to score a brace in a World Cup game. The 4–0 scoreline was