Croatia at the 1998 FIFA World Cup

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

Qualifications

Croatia was drawn in 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:

Results
Date	Venue	Opponent	Score
October 8, 1996	Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna	Bosnia and Herzegovina	4:1
November 10, 1996	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb	Greece	1:1
March 29, 1997	Poljud Stadium, Split	Denmark	1:1
April 2, 1997	Poljud Stadium, Split	Slovenia	3:3
April 30, 1997	Toumba Stadium, Thessaloniki	Greece	1:0
September 6, 1997	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3:2
September 10, 1997	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen	Denmark	1:3
October 11, 1997	Bežigrad Stadium, Ljubljana	Slovenia	3:1

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

Players

Team captain Zvonimir Boban is the only player that appeared in all 10 qualifying matches. Davor Šuker was top scorer with 5 goals. Ardian Kozniku, Petar Krpan, Anthony Šerić and Vladimir Vasilj did not appear in any of the qualifying matches but made the final World Cup squad.

Complete list of players in the qualifying matches

#	Name	Games Played	Goals
1	Zvonimir Boban	10	3
2	Davor Šuker	9	5
	Alen Bokšić	9	4
	Slaven Bilić	9	3
	Aljoša Asanović	9	0
6	Goran Vlaović	8	2
	Robert Jarni	8	0
8	Zvonimir Soldo	7	1
	Dario Šimić	7	1
	Goran Jurić	7	0
	Dražen Ladić	7	0
12	Robert Prosinečki	6	1
	Igor Cvitanović	6	0
14	Nikola Jerkan	4	0
	Krunoslav Jurčić	4	0
16	Silvio Marić	3	1
	Niko Kovač	3	0
	Marjan Mrmić	3	0
	Igor Štimac	3	0
20	Tomislav Erceg	2	0
	Tonči Gabrić	2	0
	Nenad Pralija	2	0
	Mario Stanić	2	0
24	Nikola Jurčević	1	0
	Zoran Mamić	1	0
	Daniel Šarić	1	0
	Igor Tudor	1	0

Source: Croatian Football Federation

Player was not selected for the 1998 FIFA World Cup squad

World Cup Squad

Head coach: Miroslav Blažević

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (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

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.

July 4, 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, Croatia finished in third, becoming the surprise of the tournament. Striker Davor Šuker also earned the tournament's Golden Boot for his six goals.