1934
The World Cup quickly became popular. Thirty-two countries
applied to play in the second competition. The organisers
introduced a qualifying round.
Sixteen
countries participated in the final
tournament in Italy. 12 teams were from Europe and
three were from America (including the USA but not the
holders Uruguay). Egypt represented Africa.
The tournament was played on a straight knockout basis with
games in eight Italian cities.
Italy were the favourites. Led by the first great
international manager, Vittorio Pozzo, they started the
tournament strongly. They beat the USA 7 - 1 and then Spain
in a hard fought quarterfinal. A semi final win over
Austria in heavy rain took them to a final against Austria.
The Final started badly for Italy. In
the 70th minute Czechoslovakia took the lead. Italy
didn't equalise until the last few minutes. They went
on to win 2-1 after extra time.