 Overmars was selected in the squad for the 1998 World Cup, staged in France. Before the tournament began, he scored two goals in a friendly against Paraguay. He was on the scoresheet in the national team's 5 – 0 win against South Korea in the group stage. As the tournament progressed, Overmars felt the Netherlands were "getting better and better" and believed they could win the World Cup: "Believe me, we can do it. In the past, there has been so much talk about our side and a lot of pressure with people calling us favourites. This time, nobody seemed to expect anything. In fact, people would come up to me in the street and say we were only dark horses to win." While training before the quarter-final match against Argentina, he sustained an injury which seemingly ruled him out of contention. He did feature late into the game as a substitute, but aggravated his injury. He was subsequently forced to sit out the entire semi-final against Brazil, which the Netherlands lost on penalties.
