CROATIA SCORES A COUP; RED CARD MAKES GERMANY SHORT-FOOTED : CROATIA 3, GERMANY 0.

Byline: Jere Longman The New York Times

Late in the first half, Croatia's players began making the sign of the cross, putting their hands together prayerfully and looking upward, as if they felt divine intervention would be necessary to defeat mighty Germany in their first trip to the World Cup.

But it was a more earthly arbiter - the Norwegian referee Rune Pedersen - who made the most critical decision in Saturday night's quarterfinal match that produced a stunning 3-0 victory for Croatia and set up an unexpected semifinal meeting with France on Wednesday.

In the 40th minute of a scoreless game that Germany was dominating and that was becoming increasingly contentious, Pedersen gave a red card to German defender Christian Worns for a late, open-field tackle of Croatia's star forward, Davor Suker. It was hardly the most vicious of the 54 fouls called, but it changed the course of the game irrevocably.

Forced to play with 10 men for the final 50 minutes, Germany, a three-time World Cup champion, suffered its largest defeat since a meaningless 8-3 loss to Hungary in the first round of the 1954 World Cup. For the second consecutive time, Germany has exited the World Cup in the quarterfinal round.

There were no comebacks for Germany on Saturday, as there had been against Yugoslavia and Mexico. For the fourth consecutive game, coach Berti Vogts' team failed to score in the first half. Age and the disputed red card finally overcame Germany's relentlessness.

Croatia, meanwhile, became the first team since Portugal in 1966 to reach the semifinals on its first trip to the World Cup. Its players are not exactly rookies, however. Four of them played for a united Yugoslavia in the 1990 World Cup, and the roster stocks some of Europe's top club teams.

But there is no diminishing Saturday night's achievement. Croatia, which gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, is second only to Jamaica among the 32 teams in the tournament in terms of smallness of its population, with 4.7 million residents. That compares to 6.2 million registered soccer players in Germany.

``We're very happy with this victory; it's a historical result,'' said Miroslav Blazevic, the Croatian coach. ``A Croatian team has never achieved anything this important.''

Defender Dario Simic said: ``It is a big, big, big, big, big victory for us. It's a dream. We're a small country. Right now, it's incredible what we've done.''

Croatia and Germany enjoy a complicated relationship and a brief but ill-tempered soccer history. Croatia's Ustacha regime was a Nazi puppet in World War II, and Germany, along with the Vatican, was the first nation to recognize Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia in 1992.

``There is nothing sweeter than to defeat your friends,'' Blazevic said before the game.

Blazevic had called for revenge for a dyspeptic match between the two teams in the 1996 European championships, in which Croatian defender Robert Jarni was ejected and Germany prevailed 2-1 in the quarterfinals.

Saturday night, it was Germany that was stung by a red card in the 40th minute when defender Worns took out the legs of Suker and sent him windmilling.

The tackle seemed more clumsy than wicked, but Pedersen apparently issued a red card because the takedown had been made in the open field. Worns put his hands to his head in disbelief.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Croatian striker Davor Suker carries his nation's flag during a victory lap after the stunning quarterfinal upset of Germany.

Michel Euler/Associated Press

(2--Color) Holland's Dennis Bergkamp is mobbed by his teammates.

Associated Press 

(3) Germany's Andres Kopke is beaten by a shot from Croatia's Goran Vlaovic.

Eric Draper/Associated Press