Thuram’s timely triumph

FRANCE and Croatia will turn the clock back 20 years when they face each other at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium in this afternoon’s World Cup final. On July 8, 1998, the two nations were pitched into battle, this time at the semi-final stage, at the Stade de France and it was the hosts who prevailed with a 2-1 victory to set up a final showdown with Brazil. Here, Sportsmail takes a look back at an eventful and controversial evening in Paris.

THE MATCHWINNER

Defender Lilian Thuram scored only two goals in 142 appearances for France — and they both arrived on the same evening with impeccable timing. With his side trailing 1-0, he robbed Croatia captain Zvonimir Boban and found Youri Djorkaeff before bursting on to the return pass and guiding a 47th-minute equaliser past keeper Drazen Ladic. And there was better to come 20 minutes from time when he curled a left-foot shot beyond Ladic’s despairing dive to send his team into the final.

THE VILLAIN

There were 14 minutes of the game remaining when France were awarded a free-kick and central defender Laurent Blanc found himself wrestling for space with opposite number Slaven Bilic. The Croatian went to ground clutching his face and with no video assistant referee to help out, Spanish official Jose Maria Garcia-Aranda produced a red card for for the Frenchman. Asked about the incident in 2011, Bilic told Le Parisien: ‘It wasn’t like Mike Tyson, but I was struck. I’m sorry that Laurent missed the final, genuinely — but the one to blame is him.’

THE AFTERMATH

France tried desperately to persuade FIFA that Blanc’s red card should be rescinded with the use of video evidence, which revealed contact between the two men, but appeared to show that Bilic had not been hit in the face as his reaction suggested. It proved to no avail and the defender sat out the biggest game of his career, an injustice in the eyes of French fans as big as Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand-of-God’ goal against England in 1986 and Thierry Henry’s illegal intervention in France’s play-off victory over the Republic of Ireland in 2009.

THE GOLDEN BOOT

One of the stars of the tournament, Davor Suker, had put Croatia ahead with a 46thminute strike when he controlled Aljosa Asanovic’s fine ball over the top and beat advancing keeper Fabien Barthez to shock the hosts. He and his teammates ultimately returned home with bronze medals after beating Holland in the third-place playoff, when he scored the decisive goal to take his tally to six and ensure he also left with the Golden Boot.