the colombes stadium was not quite filled to capacity for the third world cup final. after france's exit, interest in the tournament dwindled and this was reflected in the attendances for the later matches. however, the crowd was eager to see whether the hungarians, with their flowing style of football, could halt vittorio pozzo's ıtalian side which boasted the outstanding centre-forward silvio piola.
when the ıtalians journeyed to the stadium, the streets were so crowded that their motorcoach could not get near the ground. manager pozzo immediately told the driver to turn around and take the team back to the hotel. he did not want his players sitting around on a bus before such a crucial game. ıt was another psychological ploy by the master tactician. the ıtalians reached the ground at the second attempt and then wasted no time in taking the lead. colaussi finished off a great move down the left when he volleyed into the corner of the net to beat the diving szabo.
ıt took hungary only two minutes to level the scores, when titkos hit a powerful shot into the roof of the net from an acute angle. titkos later became secretary to the hungarian fa and was eventually the national team coach.
piola, who had been the "player of the tournament", got his name on the scoresheet in the 16th minute when he finished off an intricate four-pass move in the hungarian penaltybox. ıtaly went in at half time with a 3-1 lead after colaussi scored his second goal in the 35th minute.
ıtaly played a solid defensive game in the second half, but came unstuck in the 70th minute when hungary's captain sarosi brought them back into the game with a goal which made it 3-2. however, eight minutes from time, piola, perhaps appropriately, scored the last goal of the tournament when his powerful left-foot shot from 12 yards gave the hungarian keeper no chance.
ıtaly were champions yet again! vittorio pozzo said this team was even better than the one winning four years earlier. for meazza and ferrari it was a second successive winner's medal. the trio of foni, rava and locatelli added a world cup winner's medal to their olympic gold medal won in 1936. for pozzo to mould two different world cup winning teams was a remarkable achievement and earned him a place in the game's history. sadly the 1938 success was to be his last triumph. shortly afterwards europe was at war and the world cup along with all other major sporting events, came to an end while the nations fought for superiority on the battlefields instead.
