Croatia at the 1998 FIFA World Cup

At the 1998 FIFA World Cup Croatia participated for in the event for the first time. The country went on to finish third place in the tournament.

Qualifications

Croatia was drawn into Group A of UEFA's World Cup qualifications along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Greece, and Slovenia. Croatia finished second, behind Denmark, and qualified for the World Cup. The team had the following results:

The final standings were the following:

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Denmark	17	8	5	2	1	14	6	8
Croatia	15	8	4	3	1	17	12	5
Greece	14	8	4	2	2	11	4	7
Bosnia and Herzegovina	9	8	3	0	5	9	14	-5
Slovenia	1	8	0	1	7	5	20	-15

Croatia at the World Cup

At the World Cup, Croatia was drawn into Group H along with Argentina, Jamaica, Japan. The team advanced to the round of sixteen, finishing in second place in the group. The team had the following results:

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA GD  Argentina 9 3 3 0 0 7 0 +7  Croatia 6 3 2 0 1 4 2 +2  Jamaica 3 3 1 0 2 3 9 -6  Japan 0 3 0 0 3 1 4 -3

Croatia 3 - 1 Jamaica Croatia 1 - 0 Japan Croatia 0 - 1 Argentina

June 14, 1998

Jamaica	1 - 3 (1-1)	Croatia	21:00 - Stade Félix Bollaert, Lens Ref: Vítor Pereira (Portugal) Attendance: 38,058
Earle 45'		Stanić 27'
		Prosinečki 53'
		Šuker 69'

June 20, 1998

Japan	0 - 1 (0-0)	Croatia	14:30 - Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes Ref: Ramesh Ramdhan (Trinidad and Tobago) Attendance: 35,500
		Šuker 77'

June 26, 1998

Argentina	1 - 0 (1-0)	Croatia	16:00 - Parc Lescure, Bordeaux Ref: Said Belqola (Morocco) Attendance: 31,800
Pineda 36'

Croatia went on to face the Romanian squad in the round of sixteen.

June 30, 1998

Romania	0 - 1 (0-1)	Croatia	16:30 - Parc Lescure, Bordeaux Ref: Javier Castrilli (Argentina) Attendance: 31,800
		Šuker (p) 45'+2'

Croatia then played the heavily favoured German squad in the quarter-finals after their victory over Romania.

June 29, 1998

Germany	0 - 3 (0-1)	Croatia	21:00 - Stade Gerland, Lyon Ref: Rune Pedersen (Norway) Attendance: 39,100
		Jarni 45'+3'
		Vlaović 80'
		Šuker 85'

After this surprise victory, Croatia played the host French team.

July 8, 1998

France	2 - 1 (0-0)	Croatia	21:00 - Stade de France, Saint-Denis Ref: José Garcia Aranda (Spain) Attendance: 76,000
Thuram 47'		Šuker 46'
Thuram 69'

Croatia lost the match against France, ending their World Cup dreams. However, they entered the third place consolation match against the Netherlands.

July 11, 1998

Netherlands	1 - 2 (1-2)	Croatia	21:00 - Parc des Princes, Paris Ref: Epifanio Gonzalez Chavez (Paraguay) Attendance: 45,500
Zenden 21'		Prosinečki 13'
		Šuker 35'

With this victory, the Croats finished in third, becoming the surprise of the tournament. Croatia's Davor Šuker also earned the tournament's Gold Boot for his six goals.

Croatia's Roster

Head coach: Miroslav Blažević

No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Club 1 1GK Dražen Ladić 1 January 1963 Croatia Zagreb 2 4FW Petar Krpan 1 July 1974 NK Osijek 3 3MF Anthony Šerić 15 January 1979 Hajduk Split 4 2DF Igor Štimac 6 September 1967 Derby County 5 2DF Goran Jurić 5 February 1963 Croatia Zagreb 6 2DF Slaven Bilić 11 September 1968 Everton 7 3MF Aljoša Asanović 14 December 1965 Napoli 8 3MF Robert Prosinečki 12 January 1969 Croatia Zagreb 9 4FW Davor Šuker 1 January 1968 Real Madrid 10 3MF Zvonimir Boban 8 October 1968 AC Milan 11 3MF Silvio Marić 20 March 1975 Croatia Zagreb 12 1GK Marijan Mrmić 6 May 1965 Beşiktaş 13 3MF Mario Stanić 10 April 1972 Parma 14 2DF Zvonimir Soldo 2 November 1967 VfB Stuttgart 15 2DF Igor Tudor 16 April 1978 Hajduk Split 16 4FW Ardian Kozniku 27 October 1967 Bastia 17 3MF Robert Jarni 26 October 1968 Real Betis 18 2DF Zoran Mamić 30 September 1971 VfL Bochum 19 4FW Goran Vlaović 7 August 1972 Valencia 20 2DF Dario Šimić 12 November 1975 Croatia Zagreb 21 3MF Krunoslav Jurčić 26 November 1969 Croatia Zagreb 22 1GK Vladimir Vasilj 6 July 1975 NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac