WORLD CUP 1998

France played host to the World Cup for the second time in 1998. For the first time the finals would feature thirty-two teams, as FIFA tried to accommodate increased standards across all the continents. There would be eight groups of four teams with no more third placed teams going through, the top two in each group advancing to the second round.

Champions Brazil opened the tournament with a narrow 2-1 win over Scotland in Group A thanks to a freak own-goal. Another win over Morocco took them through, and when Morocco beat Scotland 3-0 in their last match it seemed that they would accompany the champions into the last sixteen. Unfortunately for Morocco, Norway scored twice in the last ten minutes to beat Brazil and seal second place for themselves. Italy survived a scare in their first Group B match to draw with Chile, and went on to win the group with wins over Cameroon and Austria. Chile clinched second place with three draws after Cameroon finished their meeting in the last group game with just nine men.

Hosts France cruised through Group C with three wins, and were joined in Round Two by Denmark after they survived a scare against debutants South Africa to emerge with a 1-1 draw. Saudi Arabia, surprise package four years earlier, were a pale shadow of the team of 1994. Group D appeared to be the strongest in the tournament, and favourites Spain went down to a shock 3-2 opening defeat to Nigeria having led twice. Spain failed to break down Paraguay in their second match and paid the price when the South Americans beat already qualified Nigeria in their last game to clinch second place. Spain's 6-1 thrashing of Bulgaria was left meaningless as they surprisingly crashed out.

Mexico, Belgium and the Netherlands were very closely matched in Group E, all drawing with each other, but Belgium's failure to beat bottom-placed South Korea in their last match sent them out and sent the Dutch and the Mexicans, who had both beaten Korea, through. Germany and Yugoslavia were comfortable in Group F, both beating Iran and the U.S.A. Germany finished in first place on goal difference after fighting back from 2-0 down to draw with Yugoslavia, while Iran clinched their first ever World Cup win against the disappointing Americans, who finished with the tournament's worst record.

Wins over Colombia and England saw Romania through from Group G with a match to spare. England needed a point from their last match to go through but secured a 2-0 win over Colombia to ensure that they would join the Romanians in the second round. Romania's point against Tunisia in their final match gave them first place in the group. Group H featured three teams making their World Cup debuts, Croatia, Jamaica and Japan. Croatia were fancied to go through alongside favourites Argentina, and the group turned out largely as expected. Argentina won all three matches to top the group and Croatia beat the other the newcomers to seal second place, although there was some consolation for Jamaica when they beat Japan 2-1.

In a poor match to open the second round, Italy sneaked past Norway by the only goal, before a fantastic attacking performance from Brazil saw them crush Chile 4-1. Laurent Blanc scored the first ever golden goal in the World Cup to give France a narrow win ove Paraguay, but Nigeria could not find the form of the group stage as they surprisingly crashed 4-1 to Denmark. Germany edged through against Mexico thanks to two goals in the last fifteen minutes, and a last-gasp winner from Edgar Davids gave the Netherlands a quarter-final place at the expense of Yugoslavia. Croatia beat Romania 1-0 in another poor game, but the last match of the round was a classic encounter between Argentina and England. Both teams led in a first half that finished 2-2, and that was still the score after extra-time, with Argentina going through after a penalty shoot-out.

Hosts France moved into the last four on penalties after a goalless quarter-final with Italy, before Brazil were forced to come from behind and then survive a late scare against Denmark to record a 3-2 win. Dennis Bergkamp's wonderful late winner against Argentina took the Netherlands through to a semi-final against Brazil, and in the last quarter-final Germany fell apart late on and crashed 3-0 to Croatia. In the semi-finals, Brazil seemed to be set for a place in the final before a late Dutch equaliser took their match to extra-time, but the South Americans won through anyway on penalties. The holders would face the hosts in a dream final after France came from behind to end Croatia's run and reach their first final with a 2-1 win. Croatia sealed a surprise bronze medal with a 2-1 win in the third place match.

The final started in a bizarre way, with confusion about the participation of Brazilian star Ronaldo who was left off their original team sheet. With their best player below his best, Brazil could not get into the game and two headed goals from Zinedine Zidane put the hosts in dreamland at half-time. Brazil tried to fight back, but there was no way through and Emmanuel Petit's injury time strike sealed France's first World Cup victory in front of an ecstatic home crowd.