They opened the group stage with an excellent away draw against the then reigning Champions League winners, and they were competitive in the later match in Zagreb as well. The players of the then Croatia drew 0-0 at Old Trafford, but in this penultimate round at home they ended up without a point. Manchester won 2-1, which meant that in the final round away at Marseille the Blues needed a win to finish third at the very least. That would have guaranteed them a place in the UEFA Cup and a continuation of their European campaign.

What is more, in that final match in France Croatia led 2-1 in the closing seconds, but then conceded. The resulting 2-2 was not enough to go through. Under the competition format of the time, the first knockout stage after the group phase was still scheduled for the autumn half of the season, so formally it would not have meant a secured "European spring" either.

Robert Prosinečki was a surprise omission from the Blues' starting line-up, a decision made by head coach Osvaldo Ardiles. Krunoslav Jurčić was also unavailable due to yellow-card suspension, Dražen Ladić due to injury, and the then young prospect Igor Bišćan due to mononucleosis.

Despite these squad challenges, Croatia were still competitive, especially in the first half.

In the 24th minute Edin Mujčin burst into the penalty area and was brought down by Paul Scholes, but Dutch referee Dick Jol did not even consider awarding a penalty. Eight minutes later Manchester took the lead. David Beckham took a free kick near the edge of the penalty area and sent the ball past the "living wall" into the far corner.

Three minutes later Goran Jurić left the pitch injured. Prosinečki came on in his place, and Tomislav Rukavina was moved to the position of last defender. It was Prosinečki who, in the 40th minute, dangerously shot from the edge of the penalty area, but goalkeeper Mark Bosnich managed to prevent a goal. At the start of the second half Mario Cvitanović struck superbly from 25 metres, and the ball flew half a metre wide of the post.

In the 50th minute Roy Keane shot from 30 metres. On its way to goal the ball grazed Mario Tokić, changed direction, wrong-footed goalkeeper Tomislav Butina and ended up in the net.

The visitors skilfully protected their lead until the end of the match, closing off the approaches to their goal. Josip Šimić did get away from Jaap Stam in the 72nd minute, but in a promising situation he sent the ball wide of the goal from the top of the six-yard box. The Blues pulled one back in the 90th minute: Edin Mujčin played a pass to Prosinečki, who struck first time from seven metres and placed the ball in the goal.