Thursday 7 June 2018 10:20, UK
England fell to old foes Argentina but hosts France held their nerve to triumph on a memorable evening in Paris.
England returned after an eight-year absence from the world stage. Rewinding back to the tournament's opening encounter, an apparent mismatch between reigning champions Brazil and Scotland, anticipation had well and truly reached boiling point come the time of the first whistle.
Craig Brown's side turned in a brave performance but slipped to a 2-1 defeat and, in a group that also included Norway and Morocco, progression was always a big ask.
They did at least return home with a point, claimed from a 1-1 draw with Norway in their second game, although that was as good as it would get.
Norway would eventually join Brazil in the last 16 after a late fightback saw them highlight the champions' vulnerability with a 2-1 success.
England, meanwhile, would make it through to the knock-out stage, albeit with a heartbreaking late defeat to Romania sandwiched in the middle of impressive wins.
England secured their first three points with a 2-0 beating of Tunisia. Alan Shearer headed home the opener to settle their nerves just before the interval, although it would not be until the game's final minute that the win would be sealed by Paul Scholes' picture-book curler.
As England moved north to Toulouse, it was the turn of Hoddle's men to suffer at the wrong end of a 90th-minute decider.
Having fallen behind to Viorel Moldovan's opening strike, Hoddle had thrown the precocious talent of Michael Owen on in a last-ditch attempt to save the game. And the Liverpool youngster repaid his manager's faith with a scrappy goal on the turn with just seven minutes left on the clock.
However, Chelsea's Dan Petrescu turned out to be the hero, stealing in amid some static English defending to poke the ball home at the near post.
Hoddle's men had one chance left and they would take it - beating Colombia 2-0 in Lens with classic goals from Darren Anderton and David Beckham. The Spurs playmaker smashed home a dipping half volley on 20 minutes, before a Beckham free-kick curled into the corner of the net.
Elsewhere in the opening round, Nigeria's 3-2 victory over the heavily-fancied Spain would be the major shock of the group stage, with Sunday Oliseh's rasping drive from distance settling matters in the 78th minute.
France got their campaign off to a flyer with three wins, a feat matched only by Argentina, who didn't even give up a goal.
Italy, Holland and Germany all advanced as group winners, but none looked to be firing on all cylinders, while Croatia, Paraguay and Chile all reached the second round as well.
One team that would not sneak into the next round, though, would be the United States, who returned across the Atlantic without a point to show for their efforts. And their dismal campaign was capped by a 2-1 defeat to Iran.
Come the end of the opening stage, Spain would be the biggest team to be going home, unable to recover from that opening defeat by Nigeria. Even the 6-1 win over Bulgaria in their final game wasn't enough.
Paraguay were the team to have beaten Spain into the last 16 and their reward was a game against France.
It would prove to be coach Aime Jacquet's toughest test, as a disappointing 90 minutes of action saw the game into an extra period. However, France always had that little extra and eventually booked a spot in the last eight thanks to Laurent Blanc's golden goal.
Italy and Germany both edged into the last eight with unimpressive victories, while Croatia, Denmark, Holland and Brazil joined them with far more inspiring efforts. Denmark were probably the surprise package, with a thumping 4-1 success over Nigeria, and Brazil also looked in good form with a win by the same margin over Chile.
In England's last-16 tie, Gabriel Batistuta put Argentina in front, firing past David Seaman from the penalty spot.
Attention quickly shifted focus to the other end of the field, where the trickery of Owen won a spot-kick for England, which Alan Shearer converted.
If the world didn't know who Owen was yet, it was going to take barely 15 seconds for him to catapult up the list of most-wanted strikers.
Picking the ball up in midfield, he sped past the challenges of Jose Chamot and Roberto Ayala, before his diagonal run drew goalkeeper Carlos Roa and he fired high into the top corner.
England looked dangerous on the break and they came close to adding a third . But they were made to pay by a clinical free-kick by Javier Zanetti, from the edge of the penalty area in first-half stoppage-time, as Argentina made it 2-2.
Within 90 seconds of the restart, Beckham kicked out at Diego Simeone and was sent off.
From then on it was backs to the wall for the English defence, marshalled by Sol Campbell. The then Tottenham man almost sealed a stunning triumph with a towering header but the goal was disallowed.
Ninety minutes couldn't split the sides, nor could another painful half-hour of Argentine pressure during extra-time as the game went to penalties.
Hernan Crespo and Paul Ince missed the second penalties for both sides, as the shoot-out progressed to 4-3 in Argentina's favour. That left David Batty needing to score in order to keep the game alive, but his effort was saved.
A thrilling clash between Holland and Argentina in the quarter-finals was settled in Marseille by a moment of true magic by Dennis Bergkamp.
Germany, meanwhile, followed Argentina out of the competition as they were outplayed by Croatia, who ran out 3-0 victors with goals from Robert Jarni, Goran Vlaovic and Davor Suker.
The third quarter-final clash saw Brazil's defence stumble into the next stage as a Rivaldo double saw them edge a five-goal thriller against Denmark.
France's win over Italy was far from a classic, but it was priceless all the more for their home fans who were beginning to believe in the possibility of France going all the way. It took Luigi Di Biagio's penalty against the crossbar in a sudden-death penalty shoot-out to send the French wild, as Italy were sent the way of Paraguay.
Come the last four and penalties would again be required to separate Brazil and Holland, in a hotly-anticipated encounter that failed to live up to its pre-match billing.
Ronaldo, impressive throughout the tournament, cracked the opening goal a minute into the second half, but this was to be cancelled out by Kluivert with just three minutes left. A negative affair in extra-time saw neither team gain the decisive golden goal and a shoot-out arrived.
Brazil's players would hold their nerve as Philip Cocu and Ronald de Boer missed to leave the Dutch to suffer semi-final heartbreak again.
Croatia would endure similar agony as they failed to halt the French bandwagon at the Stade de France. Reliable full-back Lilian Thuram was to be the surprise French hero, as his double helped them storm back from falling behind to Suker's opener, to claim a 2-1 success.
So, this left the way clear for the showpiece final, as Brazil looked to successfully defend their title against home favourites France.
The French midfield pairing of Zinedine Zidane and Emmanuel Petit were exceptional and the former opened the scoring with a header from the latter's corner. And he doubled the lead in almost identical fashion just a minute into the second period as the Brazil defence was caught cold.
Brazil's world title was slipping away from them and as they committed players forward late on, Petit sealed the win with a cool left-foot finish to cap a pacey break. The World Cup was France's for the very first time, and where better to lift the trophy than in front of their own fans inside the brand new Stade de France.
Instrumental in all that was good about France's play, the silky playmaker's World Cup medal was the first in a string of individual gongs that included being named the European and World Footballer of the Year. He will be remembered more for his headed double in the final against Brazil, but it was his general play during the rest of the tournament that marked him out as the best in France.
Dennis Bergkamp's magical goal - also against Argentina - ran Owen's strike close, but for me, there could be only one option.
It had everything. Great goals, a red card, a questionable disallowed goal, two nervy periods of extra-time and an unbearably tense penalty shoot-out.
