When they run to the field of Lužnjiki on Sunday, the Croatian national team, in addition to the undisputed desire to win the "Golden Goddess" and enter the book of immortals, will have another goal in front of them. Revenge to France for defeat in the semi-finals of the World Cup 20 years ago.
Modrić and his teammates were children in 1998 when, on a warm, July evening, Croatia played a big match at the "France" stadium in Paris and dreamed of a world title. Thanks to Lilian Tiram, dreams did not come true then.
No one predicted that the "fire" in 1998, as well as in 2018, would reach the very end. Led by the coach of all coaches, the charismatic Miroslav Ćir Blažević, Croatia entered the semi-final match as an underdog. Against them were the home team led by Zinedine Zidane and around 80.000 local fans.
The Croats were not afraid of the importance of the match. After a scoreless first half, Davor Šuker put the Flames in the lead in the 46th minute.
"We knew that it would be difficult for them to score against us. We knew that we had a chance to save "zero" without major problems, but we didn't believe that we would give them a goal", once said a member of that generation, Slaven Bilić, in the series "Football, football and more", dedicated to football in the region of the former Yugoslavia.
The Croatian lead lasted only 60 seconds. Tricolor defender Lilijan Tiram appeared on the big stage. First, he stole the ball from Boban and equalized the score, then in the 70th minute he sneaked up behind Jarni, snatched the ball from him and put France in the lead with a precise shot from the edge of the penalty area. They were the only goals the defender scored in his career in the national team jersey.
"Even in that hug, when we hugged Šuker, we said 'let's just hold on for ten minutes', where they will try to equalize violently, just hold on and later we'll score their second goal and we're in the final," Bilić recalled.
From the 76th minute, the Croats played with one more player. Blan was sent off after hitting Bilić. That didn't help them avoid defeat either.
"If we had lasted at least five minutes longer without conceding a goal, I think we would have had the strength, because the French would have opened up and we probably would have scored another goal," said Robert Jarni in the aforementioned documentary.
20 years have passed since the match in France. The boys from 1998 are now the stars of the biggest European clubs. Some of them then decided to follow in the footsteps of Boban, Šuker and Prosinecki. They surpassed the success of Blažević's boys and will play the World Cup final on Sunday. Maybe they will win it. It wouldn't be undeserved.
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