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
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.
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 Šuker'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.
Summary
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.
Mascot
Ten stadia were used during the tournament:
Venues
Said Belqola
Gamal Al-Ghandour
Lucien Bouchardeau
Lim Kee Chong
Ian McLeod
Abdul Rahman Al-Zeid
Ali Bujsaim
Masayoshi Okada
Pirom Un-Prasert
Marc Batta
Günter Benkö
Pierluigi Collina
Hugh Dallas
Paul Durkin
José Garcia Aranda
Bernd Heynemann
Nikolai Levnikov
Urs Meier
Vítor Melo Pereira
Kim Milton Nielsen
Rune Pedersen
László Vágner
Mario van der Ende
Ryszard Wojcik
Esfandiar Baharmast
Arturo Brizio Carter
Ramesh Ramdhan
Edward Lennie
Javier Castrilli
Epifanio González
Márcio Rezende de Freitas
Mario Sanchez Yanten
Alberto Tejada
John Toro Rendon Match officialsFor a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1998 FIFA World Cup squads.
Squads
Results
All times local (CEST)/(UTC+2)
First round
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group FGroup G
Group H
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place match
Final
All-star team
Davor Šuker Gabriel Batistuta Christian Vieri Ronaldo Marcelo Salas Luis Hernández Bebeto César Sampaio Rivaldo Thierry Henry Oliver Bierhoff Jürgen Klinsmann Dennis Bergkamp Ariel Ortega
Marc Wilmots Robert Prosinečki Brian Laudrup Alan Shearer Michael Owen Emmanuel Petit Lilian Thuram Zinedine Zidane Roberto Baggio
Theodore Whitmore Ricardo Peláez Salaheddine Bassir Abdeljalil Hadda Phillip Cocu Ronald de Boer Patrick Kluivert
Viorel Moldovan Shaun Bartlett Fernando Hierro Kiko Fernando Morientes
Slobodan Komljenović Claudio López Mauricio Pineda Javier Zanetti Andreas Herzog Toni Polster Ivica Vastić Luc Nilis
Emil Kostadinov
Patrick Mboma Pierre Njanka José Luis Sierra Léider Preciado Robert Jarni Mario Stanić Goran Vlaović Thomas Helveg Martin Jørgensen Michael Laudrup Peter Møller Allan Nielsen Marc Rieper Ebbe Sand Darren Anderton David Beckham Paul Scholes Laurent Blanc Youri Djorkaeff Christophe Dugarry Bixente Lizarazu David Trezeguet Andreas Möller
Mehdi Mahdavikia Hamid Reza Estili Luigi Di Biagio Robbie Earle Masashi Nakayama Cuauhtémoc Blanco Alberto García Aspe Mustapha Hadji Edgar Davids Marc Overmars Pierre van Hooijdonk Boudewijn Zenden
Mutiu Adepoju Tijjani Babangida Victor Ikpeba Garba Lawal Sunday Oliseh Wilson Oruma Dan Eggen Håvard Flo Tore André Flo Kjetil Rekdal Celso Ayala Miguel Angel Benítez José Cardozo Adrian Ilie Dan Petrescu Sami Al-Jaber Yousuf Al-Thunayan Craig Burley John Collins Benni McCarthy
Ha Seok-Ju Yoo Sang-Chul Luis Enrique Raúl
Skander Souayah Brian McBride Siniša Mihajlović Predrag Mijatović Dragan Stojković Youssef Chippo (for Norway) Tom Boyd (for Brazil) Pierre Issa (for France) Siniša Mihajlović (for Germany)
