World Cup 1998 Summary: Zinedine Zidane’s Stage and the Mystery of Ronaldo and Brazil

After two consecutive World Cups in 1990 and 1994, France became the host country of the World Cup in 1998, although it fell to the semifinals of the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. France became the host country of the World Cup in 1998, the second time after 1938. The World Cup was co-chaired by Michel Platini, owner of three French football clubs and European champions in 1984. Before the World Cup, there was not much hope for the host country. Four M.A. Jacquet players decided not to gather a certain number of individuals, such as Eric Cantona or David Giannola, to support the approach of the team. The process in the French team's friendly matches against the competition was not convincing, and the media criticized them more and more, especially about the M.A. Jacquet players. Hooliganism is still a pressing and security issue that has been tightened after the clash between the Tunisian and British players in Marseille. On June 21, 1998, next to the Felix Bollehez stadium in Lens, where the match between Germany and South Tyrol took place, French soldier Daniel Nivelle was attacked by German hooligans. He was hypnotized for six weeks and had to suffer permanent injuries. Those attacks also had to be condemned. The numbering of 32 teams is a big step for FIFA in the direction of greater popularity around the world. This is the turning point of the World Cup, In 1970, FIFA President Sir Stanley Rhodes first proposed that the World Cup final should be expanded to 32 teams. 28 years later, his idea has come true. From now on, there are no more tickets through the box for the third-round teams. There are only two teams in the lead. Each 8-round match is eligible to participate in the 16th round. Thanks to the expansion of the number of teams, the number of representatives of Africa has also increased from 3 to 5 teams and of Asia from 2 to 4 teams. There are 10 cities in France hosting the 1998 World Cup, located in Saint-Denis, Paris, Stade de France. The venue for the opening match and the final match with 80,000 seats is the only stadium built for this occasion. The stadium was opened on January 28, 1998 with a friendly match between France and Spain, and Zinedine Zidane was the first to score a goal in Stade de France, like a testament to the victory of this country in this historic stadium. In the second round, Iran surprised by defeating Australia to advance to the final round of the World Cup. At the same time, another Asian football team also won the right to the World Cup for the first time in their history, which is the Japanese team. In Africa, South Africa first participated in the World Cup after defeating Afcon in 1996. The Conca Cap area has 3 representatives. The US, Mexico and Jamaica were the first to participate. In South America, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia and Chile are familiar names. Argentina had a thrilling round with the appearance of a lion, Gabriel Batistuta, the only winner in Argentina's 1-0 victory against Japan in the World Cup. Batigol continued to set up a hat-trick for himself in the game against Jamaica. He won the 3rd and 4th for Argentina with 2 goals from his right foot. Before the success of Penalty by Ortega, Batistuta was the first to score 2 goals. This is the 46th hat-trick in the history of the World Cup and also the only hat-trick of this tournament. With the hat-trick and the loss in 1994, Batistuta became the 4th player in the history of the World Cup, setting up 2 hat-tricks in the history of the World Cup final. Robert Prosinecki became the first player in World Cup history to score 2 goals for 2 different national teams. In 1990, Prosinecki scored his first goal for South Africa and in 1998 he continued to score goals for Croatia. The 1998 World Cup is also a strange World Cup. It cannot be left out of the talent show of this tournament. In the table, the talent show of Arturo Brio Carter created history with his number of red cards. He won 3 World Cup 98 and 1994 tournaments, drawing 7 red cards in both World Cups. He drew 4 red cards in World Cup 98, 3 red cards in 1994, and 27 yellow cards in both World Cups. He broke the record of French striker Johannes Quigny, 5 goals in total. It is noteworthy that Carter won the title of Zinedine Zidane in the match between France and Saudi Arabia. In addition, in the match between Denmark and South Africa, Colombian striker Juntaro Juendon won the title to 3 opponents, thereby breaking that record. The first surprise came with an African team that was on July 13, 1998. The Spanish team of Javier Clemente was loved by the appearance of stars such as Fernando Hierro and Raúl González. The two stars have just won the Champions League with Real Madrid, but they cannot be underestimated in Nigeria because they were the Olympic champions in 1996. The maturity of Bora Milutinovic and the growth of an excellent football team with many football players in Europe have made them outstanding outsiders. To encourage his players, Bora Milutinovic let the opponents see encouraging messages from their families. Spain is the team that opened the score with Hierro's foul, but only 3 minutes later, Miltiu Adebkuju hit the corner of the net to send flowers to Nigeria, which surprised the Spanish defense. In the second half, the pair of Hierro and Raúl continued to do their best to raise the score to 2-1 for Spain, but Nigeria did not give up. Thanks to the foul of the referee Zubizarreta, Nigeria naturally drew 2-2. The final victory belonged to Nigeria when Sunday Olysee Tungku Vule shot from a distance of 30 meters into the Spanish goal. This unexpected victory was a perfect shot for Nigeria, then defeated Bulgaria 3-1 and won the round of 16. Spain was then eliminated in the 3rd position in the game with only 4 points. After winning 3-0 against South Africa, France has an easy match next to Saudi Arabia. However, Zinedine Zidane was kicked out of the field in this match due to a foul by the captain Fuad Amin of Saudi Arabia in the 71st minute. Zidane was sentenced to 2 matches, which means that the French football will be face-to-face in the round of 16. The most disappointing thing in the round may not be Zidane's red card, but Bulgaria's absence. Just 4 years ago, they were still in the semifinals, but in 1998, Bulgaria was on the board with only 1 point, ranked 29th in a total of 32 teams. Cristóbal Stoichkov and his teammates were eliminated in front of Spain in the 3rd match. Dimitar Penev's old-school football can no longer be based on players who are no longer at their best, such as Stoichkov, Krasimir Balakhov or Ilian Iliev. At the end of the round of 16, the top 8 teams in the round of 16 were Brazil, Naui, Italy, Chile, France, Denmark, Nigeria, Paraguay, Netherlands, Mexico, Germany, South Africa, Romania, England, Argentina and Croatia. Not only the star of France, Zinedine Zidane, was red carded and had to take a break, another star had to be red carded in the round of 18. This time, it was David Beckham's turn. 12 years after the legendary quarterfinals in 1986, when the match between Argentina and England was once again heard by the team. After the first 10 minutes, the score was tied with two penalties for both teams. For England, it was Alan Searer and for Argentina, it was Batistuta. In the first half, Owen started with a fast and perfect pass. This is one of the most beautiful goals of the match. However, Javier Zanetti missed with a beautiful cross-court pass and with his left foot. The match went to the end after a collision between David Beckham and Diego Simone. Beckham was the victim of a malicious pass from Simone's back. Beckham fell and in a moment of anger, he kicked his own foot into the opponent's foot. The Danish midfielder Minton Nielsen drew a red card for the English player and a yellow card for Simone. With 10 people, he defended strongly. However, in the last penalty shoot-out, they missed the chance to advance to the quarterfinals because of the skirmishes of Paul Ings and David Barty. After this regretful defeat, England coach Glenn Holder said, To hold on for a long time for Argentina is a miracle. We have advanced very close to a historic victory. After a red card for himself, Beckham was also very sorry for the confusion in the penalty shoot-out. I know that my teammates and supporters were very disappointed. However, at the age of 23, I am not willing to be blamed for that failure. In the 8th round, after Zidane or Beckham were kicked out of the field, Ronaldo de Lima shone brightly. Four years ago, in Brazil's championship, even if he hadn't played for a minute, Ronaldo had learned a lot in the United States. Four years later, Ronaldo de Lima became Brazil's number one striker, former opponent of Cruzeiro PSV Arjoven and Barcelona's owner of Ballon d'Or in 1997, is now shining in the Inter Milan jersey. At the age of 21, the star of Brazil has everything, speed, technique, creativity and calm in front of the goal. In the round against Morocco, he scored and created for Bebeto in the 3-0 win against Chile. The 1.83-meter-tall star showed his star quality with two wins. Above all, he has brought fear to his opponents every time there is a ball. Ronaldo is simply a world-class player. Ronaldo's teammate, Junior Baiano. Ronaldo said, The Brazilian jersey for me is like a soldier fighting for his country. That brings a very strong However, despite four wins and the best championship title, Ronaldo, who was voted the best player in the competition, could not lead his country to victory in the final. With Zinedine Zidane suspended, the French tried to destroy the Paraguayan team in 114 minutes. With the loss of number 10 of the team, goalkeeper Emel Jacké gave Bernard Diomedes to the coach and gave him the responsibility of guiding the game with Jurien Jochef. Meanwhile, two young players, Thierry Henry and David Chesieguet, are the pair on the air. However, France was stopped by the ability to hit and the skill of the pair of Carlos Gamara and Sensoy Ayala. In the Logan Blanc partnership, he led France to lead and in front of the lightness of the country, he scored his first gold in the World Cup. My victory was at the right time. I told myself that if I had to miss the chance, our chance was really fragile. In the last 2 minutes, I was no longer playing as a goalkeeper. France had a tragic 4-0 win over Spain. In every World Cup, from 1938 to 1994 and 1998, Norway only lost one match and all three times lost to Italy with just one win. For the first time in history, Norway lost to Italy in the 16th round due to Christian Varey's foul. It was the 5th match of the tournament. Chesieguet is the appearance of 8 teams, Germany, Croatia, Brazil, Denmark, Italy, France, Netherlands and Argentina. The most surprising of Chesieguet is Germany's 0-3 loss to Croatia. Davos Suker said, Germans certainly underestimated us. They think their team is better than us. But that's the beauty of football. The favorite team does not always win. And a small country can defeat a country with a great football. It's like a fairy tale. It is a great achievement of Croatia and one of the best nights of my career. Suker said, Croatia advanced to the semifinals and although Suker could not lead his team to the final, this is still the history of Croatia. The 1998 World Cup was a memorable farewell for Laudrup. The match with Brazil in the quarterfinals was the last match of the legendary Danish captain. In 104 appearances, he scored 3-7. Although he lost 2-3 to Brazil in the Ronaldo's match, Laudrup was still satisfied. I even dreamed of beating Brazil. I didn't feel any pressure. I told myself that even if it was the last match of my career, it still had to be against Brazil. The most memorable quarterfinal was probably the all-star match between Italy and France. Five of the players of Amenjake were playing football at Italian clubs. Time playing football in Italy has helped them have a lot of valuable experience in tactical tactics and defense culture. The captain Didier Deschamps admitted, In our World Cup victory, we remember very much that we played for many foreign clubs, especially clubs in Italy. Just as Corriere dello Sport warned, before facing Italy, we produced monsters. It is true that I think they helped us grow up. Because until then, the French team had not won many matches. The French team created a match with a strong Italian style. Their firmness in their defense helped them overcome a strong team like Italy, even though Roberto Baggio with an unparalleled goal was able to score a golden goal. In the third consecutive World Cup, Italy failed to score a goal. Thus, the French team overcame the 4th set to advance to the semifinals. The Netherlands and Argentina are also another classic match. The Netherlands opened the score in the 12th minute with the victory of Patrick Kluivert. But just 5 minutes later, Argentina drew 1-1. The Netherlands won the ticket and tied with one of the greatest victories in the history of the World Cup finals. It was the victory recorded in the last official match with former coach Denis Bergkamp. Thus, the tie is the presence of the 4 most prominent representatives France, Brazil, The Netherlands and Croatia. In the tie between Brazil and The Netherlands, the rivals showed their strength. The referee, Ronaldo, hit the net of Edwin van der Sar. In the last minutes of the match, Kluivert was overtaken by the Dutch and scored the equalizer. But in the tie, The Netherlands once again missed the World Cup. Claudio Tafaren excellently blocked two penalties of Filipe Cocu and Ronaldo Boe and brought Brazil to the final. The French team will be relieved when they meet Croatia, but they also have to work very hard to be able to play in the final on the pitch. Although the tie is one-time, Didier Delchamps and his teammates can't do anything more. They had to pay the price in the second tie when Davos Zucker opened the score for Croatia in the 46th minute. But right after that, Lilian Thuram decided to raise the score to 2-1 for France. Nevertheless, they will have to play in the final without Logan Blanc because this defender had to accept it. And the final match is the stage of Zinedine Zidane. When Ronaldo seemed to be unable to appear right from the start because of an unclear illness, Zidane was of course the biggest star of the match. Before the final match, Ronaldo was knocked out. Many people said that he had a heart attack. But Ronaldo passed the tests in Lillard's room and only made it to the starting line-up 50 minutes before the final match. In the 27th minute, Zidane scored the first goal of the match from the corner of the penalty area for Emanuele Pertti. After that, in the last minutes of the first half, Juventus' defender once again made a powerful header to Brazil's net. This goal was a worthy reward for Zizou who had been studying Brazilian language throughout his brilliant performance. Ronaldo only made it to the starting line-up in the last minutes of the match but there was nothing he could do. France even increased the score to 3-0 in the last minutes and the Frenchman had a sweet victory over his home team. Despite his failure and illness, Ronaldo still proved his status as one of the best players in the world throughout the match. Ronaldo said, I have some beautiful memories in 1998. It was an amazing World Cup and it was very difficult to play against Zinedine Zidane. Later, when we were teammates, he told me a lot about that match. France won their first World Cup on their home ground. Didier Deschamps scored in front of 80,000 spectators. And at the end of that year, Zinedine Zidane received the Ballon d'Or from France. You don't have much time to read books. You want to approach books as flexibly as possible. 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