PARIS, July 13 (AFP) -Croatia finished third in their first ever World Cup competition enabling the young nation to bask in post-war soccer success.

Davor Suker was topscorer up to the final, scoring six goals, they beat Holland2-1 to grab third place after humbling mighty Germany 3-0 in the quarter-finals for what was the Germans' worst World Cup defeat in more than 40 years.

Croatia have only been a member of world football's governing body FIFA since 1992 yet now have a good record in its two major tournaments to date.

Croatia, quarter-finalists in Euro 96, losing to eventual champions Germany, only scraped through their World Cup qualifiers in a play-off after finishing second in their group toDenmark.

Top striker Alen Boksic was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury, but Suker, Aljosa Asanovic, Robert Jarni and Goran Vlaovic were just some of squad who managed admirably without him.

The sending off of Christian Worns, meaning Germany's ageing squad had to play the second half with 10-men, inevitably helped Croatia's march to the semi-finals.

But Croatia's technical artistry - they are known as the "Brazilians of Europe" - might have been enough to put them into the last four anyway.

Slaven Bilic was booed by the French crowd in the third-place match for his semi-final playacting which helped Laurent Blanc get sent off and out of the final.

Ironically, Bilic, who plays for English Premiership club Everton, holds a unique place as the only team member with a university degree, in law. Perhaps he now also qualifies in drama.

Few could deny little Croatia, with just 82,000 footballers, had done amazingly well to live with the world's elite.

Coach Miroslav Blazevic, a keen astrologer, had his prediction before the competition come true. "I'm convinced that we are ready for something big, and it will happen in France," he had said.