Paris, wednesday July the 8th, 1998. France vs Croatia semi-final of the 1998 World Cup. The air had just gone out of the 76,000 crowd at the Stade de France as the home team had just given up a goal to Davor Šuker, right at the start of the second half.
The next 45 minutes seemed destined to be an agonizing struggle to equalize against a very well organized defense, and the anemic offense of les Bleus offered little hope of breaking through. The previous rounds of the knockout stage had been defensive struggles, France needing a golden goal from defender Laurent Blanc in the dying minutes of overtime against Paraguay and settling for a nil-nil draw against Italy in the quarters, then winning on penalty kicks.
But suddenly, not one minute after the Croatian goal was settling into the minds of an entire nation, defender Lilian Thuram scored a miraculous goal, his first ever for the national team. Instantly the game was saved and it all turned around as Thuram went on to score an unbelievable second goal just minutes later, these being his only two goals in his 67 competitive appearances for France.
This equalizer won the World Cup for France. Thuram is the eternal hero of 1998. Winning in the final against an over-confident Brazil was pure destiny at this point, as Zinédine Zidane took over the show to seal the victory with two first half goals.
The next 45 minutes seemed destined to be an agonizing struggle to equalize against a very well organized defense, and the anemic offense of les Bleus offered little hope of breaking through. The previous rounds of the knockout stage had been defensive struggles, France needing a golden goal from defender Laurent Blanc in the dying minutes of overtime against Paraguay and settling for a nil-nil draw against Italy in the quarters, then winning on penalty kicks.
But suddenly, not one minute after the Croatian goal was settling into the minds of an entire nation, defender Lilian Thuram scored a miraculous goal, his first ever for the national team. Instantly the game was saved and it all turned around as Thuram went on to score an unbelievable second goal just minutes later, these being his only two goals in his 67 competitive appearances for France.
This equalizer won the World Cup for France. Thuram is the eternal hero of 1998. Winning in the final against an over-confident Brazil was pure destiny at this point, as Zinédine Zidane took over the show to seal the victory with two first half goals.
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