France came from behind to beat Croatia 2-1 last night and with the strike-force sputtering as usual, the defense came to the aid in this moment of dire need.

Thuram had a score to settle with Croatian coach Miroslav Blazevic, but no one could have thought he would do it with two goals. Least of all, the Parma defender himself.

``This is fabulous. I don't even score during training,'' he said after France qualified for its first World Cup final. On Sunday, it plays Brazil at the Stade de France.

``I cannot really start to realise what I did,'' the 26-year-old said after scoring his first goals for France.

Less than a minute after Croatia opened the score in the 46th minute, Thuram stole the ball from captain Zvonimir Boban near the Croatian penalty area, kept the ball in the team andreceived a deep pass that he slotted past goalkeeper Drazen Ladic.

In the 70th minute, the Parma defender surged up the left and set up a one-two with Thierry Henry, that seemed to go straight to Robert Jarni. But Thuram was not to be denied, winning back the ball and then unleashing a curling 20-metre shot that went wide of Ladic.

``How to explain: I had 200 percent luck to be in that goal area. Truly exceptional. Normally I just black out. This time, I had the luck to score,'' he said.

Thuram also proved Blazevic wrong. The coach had predicted that the surging runs from the right back would expose the French defence too much and be the weak spot of Les Bleus.

Thuram is already versatile enough in defence. In Italy's Serie A, he plays in the center of defence for Parma, while he is on the right side for France.``Don't get carried away though,'' he warned.

``It's not because I scored twice that I'm a hero. To be a hero, that's more for the final,'' he said.