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
Asian nations at the FIFA World Cup of the penalty area. In the second match, against Croatia, a late Davor Šuker goal ensured a 1–0 Croatia victory and his nation's progression to the next round, simultaneously eliminating Japan from the tournament. Japan's World Cup campaign officially ended with an unexpected 2–1 defeat to rank outsiders Jamaica. Two goals from Theodore Whitmore gave Jamaica their first ever win in the World Cup finals, although Masashi Nakayama had the honour of scoring Japan's first-ever goal at the World Cup finals, which came in the 74th minute. Iran's first game of Group F was played against Yugoslavia, a 1–0 loss