Croatia striker Davor Suker can still come out of the World Cup a winner despite his side losing 1-2 to France in their semifinal.

Suker's strike 28 seconds after the break made him joint top scorer in the competition with five goals.

Gabriel Batistuta of Argentina and Christian Vieri of Italy share the top spot in the scoring charts with the Croat.

But with their teams out of the competition, they could be overtaken by Suker if he can find the net in the third place play-off with the Netherlands on Saturday.

"It's not important for me at the moment," said Suker, "the most important thing is that we beat the Netherlands".

Suker said the key to his scoring success in the tournament has been the service provided by the Croatian midfield.

"You can't score unless you get a chance," said Suker. "Today I got a great ball from Aljosa (Asanovic) which really should count as half a goal. My left foot just finished off the work," he added.

The only other player withany chance of becoming the number one scorer in the tournament is Brazil's Ronaldo.

He would need to score two in the final to overtake the current top trio, providing Suker does not score. The top scorer in the last five finals has scored six goals.

Only victory counts: Blanc

Laurent Blanc tried to put on a brave face after seeing his dream of playing in the World Cup final shattered by a red card.

"Victory is the only thing that really counts," said Blanc, whose dismissal in France's 2-1 victory over Croatia meant he will have to sit and watch when the host nation take on Brazil.

The 32-year-old libero, playing in his first and probably last finals, received his marching orders in the 74th minute of yesterday's game at the Stade de France for pushing Croatian defender Slaven Bilic's chin with his open hand.

"I'm the only one who's punished and that's good," Blanc said. "The whole team might have been punished if we had lost the match because of me being sent off. It would have been awful.I would have felt guilty."

Blanc said he had reacted angrily after Bilic had let himself fall to the ground when the two went for the ball. "It was tense between us for the whole match," he said."I pushed him a bit but it was not nasty. He had tried to make the referee think that I had committed a serious offence and I was afraid I might get sent off. That's why I reacted like that but I don't think it deserved a red card."

The libero slot may now be filled by Franck Leboeuf and Deschamps said he had no doubt about the Chelsea player's ability to take over Blanc's role.