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
1998 FIFA World Cup Group G 1998 FIFA World Cup Group G At the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four, labelled A–H. The four teams in Group G were England, Romania, Colombia and Tunisia. With wins in their first two games against Colombia and England, followed by a draw against Tunisia, Romania won the group and qualified for the round of 16. England and Colombia were level on points before they played each other in their final match, each having defeated Tunisia and lost to Romania. England, with a better goal difference, only required a draw to advance.