the political use of the world cup was working wonders for mussolini and with one match remaining, victory for ıtaly would put the seal on a memorable tournament for the dictator. but czechoslovakia had played stylish football in the austrian mould to reach the final and now looked quite capable of providing an upset. both sides were captained by their goalkeepers - ıtaly by giampero combi, playing his 47th and last international, czechoslovakia by the equally experienced frantisek planicka.
the czechs opened with determination and pushed the ball around to better effect than in any of their previous matches. their attacking centre half, cambal, and ıtaly's stopper, monti, had some fierce battles in the ıtalian half of the field, but ıtaly showed more flair when attacking.
despite both team's positive approach, however, it was 70 minutes before a goal was scored. then the czech left winger antonin puc took a corner and when the ball came back to him, he fired home a powerful shot from an acute angle to crown a great individual performance.
czechoslovakia should have put the issue beyond doubt, but sobotka missed a great chance and then a svoboda shot hit the post. the czechs would have reason to rue those misses, for, as the game went into the last 10 minutes, the ıtalians scored a remarkable equallizer. orsi gathered a pass from his fellow argentinian, guaita. he ran through the czech defence and dummied a shot with his left foot, instead shooting with the outside of his right boot to send a curling, dipping ball over the hands of planicka.
the teams had been evenly matched in a furious 90 minutes. now it was down to stamina. ıtaly were the fitter of the two sides, but were handicapped by an injury to meazza. nevertheless, his injury was turned into ıtaly's advantage in the 95th minute. the czechs were not bothering to mark him and when he got the ball on the wing, he crossed to guaita, who fed the tired schiavio. the centre-forward rounded a defender and beat planicka with a shot which crept in just under the crossbar. vittorio pozzo's team were world champions!
for centerhalf luis monti who added a winner's medal to the runners-up award with argentina four years earlier, there was the added distinction of becoming the first man to win successive world cup medals with different nations.
