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
Golden goal the first period of extra time), the Czechs would have had nearly 15 minutes to attempt to score the equalizer. Furthermore, one team could benefit unfairly from the conditions, such as if a strong wind aided one side. In February 2004, the IFAB announced that, after Euro 2004, both the golden goal and silver goal methods would be removed from the Laws of the Game. Since the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the golden goal has never been used in the event of a tied match during the knockout stage, as FIFA restored the original rules: in the event