Qualifying countries
The '1998
FIFA World Cup', the 16th staging of the World Cup, was held in
France from
June 10 to
July 12 after 60 years to celebrate the third edition scheduled in 1938. France was chosen as
hosts by
FIFA on
July 1,
1992. The tournament was won by
France, who beat
Brazil 3-0 in the final. France won their first title, the 7th nation to win a World Cup, and the first host nation to win the tournament since
Argentina did it in
1978.
Qualification
Main articles: 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
Four nations qualified for the World Cup for the first time:
Croatia,
Jamaica,
Japan, and
South Africa.
Summary
The format of the competition was different from
1994, as the finals were expanded from 24 to 32 teams. The 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four. The eight group winners and the eight group runners-up would qualify for the knockout stage. The
golden goal rule was also introduced to decide knockout matches which went into
extra time. Another change in the rules came into effect at this World Cup, stating that as regulation time was about to expire in any period of play the fourth official would use a handheld electronic display to show how many minutes of stoppage time were to be played. This practice has continued since then, after being well received by media and spectators alike.
The tournament opened with
1994 FIFA World Cup champions
Brazil's 2-1 victory over
Scotland.
Norway pulled the shock of Group A, topping the holders 2-1 after two late goals. Still, both teams advanced to the next round.
Italy easily won Group B, with
Chile's three draws enough for them to get through. The Italy-Chile clash which ended 2-2 saw Italy's
Roberto Baggio cast aside the spectre of his miss in the penalty shootout in the final 4 years earlier: this time around his highly controversial spot-kick earned Italy a draw.
France swept Group C, with the lone blemish being the red card expulsion and two-game suspension of
Zinedine Zidane in a 4-0 win over
Saudi Arabia.
Denmark also moved on from the group.
Nigeria was the surprise winner of Group D, dubbed the ''Group of Death'', as
Spain once again failed to live up to high pre-cup expecations. Nigeria beat them 3-2 in a thrilling game and moved on to the next round together with
Paraguay.
Netherlands and
Mexico moved on from Group E, a group that saw four games end in draws.
Germany and
Yugoslavia made easy work of Group F.
The official 1998 FIFA World Cup poster.
A late goal for
Romania saw them beat
England 2-1 and take the top spot in Group G; the English finished second.
Argentina swept Group H, joined by
Croatia in the second round.
In the second round, Italy beat Norway 1-0 and Brazil made easy work of Chile, 4-1.
Laurent Blanc of France scored the first
Golden Goal in World Cup history as the hosts beat Paraguay 1-0. Denmark surprised Nigeria, crushing them 4-1. Germany beat Mexico and Netherlands topped Yugoslavia by identical 2-1 scores. Croatia upset Romania 1-0. Argentina beat England on penalties after drawing 2-2 in a game that saw a goal from 18-year-old
Michael Owen. The game was marred by England's
David Beckham being sent off after kicking
Diego Simeone.
France beat Italy in the quarter-finals on penalties after a scoreless draw. Brazil topped Denmark 3-2 in an exciting game. Croatia pulled perhaps the biggest shocker of the tournament, crushing Germany 3-0. The Netherlands-Argentina match was marred by violence; the Netherlands was reduced to 10 men early on after a tackle injured Diego Simeone and he had to be carried off the field for treatment. Late in the match, Argentina star
Ariel Ortega received a red card for head-butting Dutch goalkeeper
Edwin van der Sar after van der Sar confronted Ortega on the latter's play-acting attempt to draw a penalty
[1]. Shortly after Ortega's sending off,
Dennis Bergkamp of the Netherlands scored a goal to eliminate Argentina, 2-1.
In the semi-finals,
Patrick Kluivert equalized late for the Netherlands to make it 1-1, but the Dutch couldn't pull it out in the penalty shootout, sending Brazil to the final. They were joined by France, as defender
Lilian Thuram scored two goals to offset
Golden Boot winner
Davor Å uker's opener for Croatia. The Croats beat the Dutch for third place.
For the first time ever, the final featured the host nation and the defending champions.
Zinedine Zidane scored two headers from corners in the 26th minute and in first half stoppage time respectively, and
Emmanuel Petit added a late goal in second half stoppage time to give
France a 3-0 win over
Brazil. Brazil's star player
Ronaldo played poorly, having a mysterious fit the night before and many questioned his reinstatement in the starting lineup. An estimated one million people took to the Paris streets to celebrate through the night. France became the seventh world champions, joining
Uruguay,
Italy,
Germany, Brazil,
England and
Argentina.
The official theme song for the event was ''
La Copa de la Vida'' by
Ricky Martin.
Mascot
''Footix''
The
official mascot of this World Cup was ''Footix'', a
cockerel with the words "FRANCE 98" on the chest. Its body is mostly blue, like the host's
national team shirt and its name is a
portmanteau of "football" and the ending "-ix" from the popular
Astérix comic strip.
Venues
Ten stadia were used during the tournament:
| Saint-Denis | Marseille | Paris | Lens | Lyon |
|---|
| Stade de France | Stade Vélodrome | Parc des Princes | Stade Félix Bollaert | Stade Gerland |
| Capacity: '80,000' | Capacity: '60,000' | Capacity: '49,000' | Capacity: '41,800' | Capacity: '41,200' |
| | | | | |
| Nantes | Toulouse | Saint-Étienne | Bordeaux | Montpellier |
|---|
| Stade de la Beaujoire | Stade de Toulouse | Stade Geoffroy-Guichard | Parc Lescure | Stade de la Mosson |
| Capacity: '38,500' | Capacity: '37,000' | Capacity: '36,000' | Capacity: '35,200' | Capacity: '33,900' |
| | | | | |
Match officials
;Africa
★
Said Belqola
★
Gamal Al-Ghandour
★
Lucien Bouchardeau
★
Lim Kee Chong
★
Ian McLeod
;Asia
★
Abdul Rahman Al-Zeid
★
Ali Bujsaim
★
Masayoshi Okada
★
Pirom Un-Prasert
;Europe
★
Marc Batta
★
Günter Benkö
★
Pierluigi Collina
★
Hugh Dallas
★
Paul Durkin
★
José Garcia Aranda
★
Bernd Heynemann
★
Nikolai Levnikov
★
Urs Meier
★
VÃtor Melo Pereira
★
Kim Milton Nielsen
★
Rune Pedersen
★
László Vágner
★
Mario van der Ende
★
Ryszard Wojcik
;North, Central America and Caribbean
★
Esfandiar Baharmast
★
Arturo Brizio Carter
★
Ramesh Ramdhan
;Oceania
★
Edward Lennie
;South America
★
Javier Castrilli
★
Epifanio González
★
Márcio Rezende de Freitas
★
Mario Sanchez Yanten
★
Alberto Tejada
★
John Toro Rendon
Squads
For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see ''
1998 FIFA World Cup squads''.
Results
First round
''All times local (
CEST)/(
UTC+2)''
Group A
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '6' | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 |
| '5' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 4 | +1 |
| '4' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -4 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group B
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '7' | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3 | +4 |
| '3' | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| '2' | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 |
| '2' | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | -3 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group C
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '9' | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | +8 |
| '4' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| '2' | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | -3 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | -5 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group D
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '6' | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| '5' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 |
| '4' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | +4 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | -6 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group E
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '5' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 2 | +5 |
| '5' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 5 | +2 |
| '3' | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | -7 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group F
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '7' | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 |
| '7' | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -2 |
| '0' | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | -4 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group G
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '7' | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 |
| '6' | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | +3 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | -3 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group H
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '9' | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | +7 |
| '6' | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 9 | -6 |
| '0' | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | -3 |
----
----
----
----
----
Knockout stage
Round of 16
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
Quarter-finals
----
----
----
Semi-finals
----
Third place match
Final
Awards
| 1998 World Cup Winners |
|---|
 France
'France'
'First title' |
All-star team
Scorers
External links
★
1998 FIFA World Cup on FIFA.com
★
RSSSF Archive of finals
★
Planet World Cup - France 1998
★
RSSSF Archive of qualifying rounds
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