A Brief History of Italian International Football Quiz

Answer: France

The match between Italy and France was played in Milan. The first goal of Italy was scored by Pietro Lana. Italy played with a 2-3-5 formation.

Italy won the bronze medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics held in Amsterdam, by defeating Egypt 11-3 in the third place playoff. Italy topped both the 1927-30 and 1933-35 editions of the Central European International Cup. In both editions, Austria was second. Italy however did not play in the inaugural FIFA World Cup held in Uruguay.

Answer: Czechoslovakia

Sixteen teams played in the FIFA World Cup in 1934 in Italy. The final was won by Italy 2-1, beating Czechoslovakia. The goals were scored by Raimundo Orsi and Angelo Schiavio. Germany defeated Austria 3-2 in the third place play-off. Giuseppe Meazza of Italy won the Golden Ball award.

The 1938 FIFA World Cup was hosted by France with fifteen teams playing. Italy defeated Hungary 4-2 in the final held in Paris, while Brazil beat Sweden in the third place play-off. In the final, two goals were scored by Gino Colaussi and Silvio Piola for Italy.

Answer: Torino F.C.

On 4th May 1949, a Fiat G.212 plane of the Italian Airlines crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga, located near Turin. The Torino F.C. team was returning after playing a friendly match with S.L. Benfica. Thirty one people died in the plane crash. The team that died was known as the 'Grande Torino', as they had won the Serie A four consecutive Serie A titles: 1946-47-48-49.

The national team of Italy was so weakened by the crash that they failed to clear the first round in the 1950 FIFA World cup, held in Brazil and won by Uruguay.

Answer: First UEFA final for which a replay was held

The 1960 UEFA European Championship final was won by the Soviet Union in extra time. The 1964 edition of the tournament was won by Spain, who was the host.

The 1968 edition was hosted by Italy and had four countries in the tournament - Italy, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and England. Italy and Yugoslavia drew the original final 1-1 on 8th June. Penalties were not introduced at that time. As per the then custom, the match was replayed two days later. On 10th June, Italy won the replay 2-0 against Yugoslavia. The goals were scored by Luigi Riva and Pietro Anastasi.

Answer: West Germany

The semi-final between Italy and West Germany was held at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Roberto Boninsegna scored the first goal for Italy in the 4th minute, and Karl-Heinz Schnellinger of Germany scored Germany's first goal at the 90 minute mark, pushing the match into extra-time. Germany's next goal (by Gerd Muller) came in the 94th and was reciprocated by Italy's Tarcisio Burgnich, who scored in the 98th. Luigi Riva put Italy ahead with a goal in the 104th and Gerd Muller levelled the score with another goal in the 110th. The final and conclusive goal was scored by Gianni Rivera nine minutes from time in the 111th. Italy won 4-3 aet.

In the other semi-final, Brazil defeated Uruguay 3-1. Brazil defeated Italy 4-1 in the final, and became the first team to win the World Cup three times (they win in 1958 and 1962), and permanently hold the Jules Rimet trophy.

Answer: Paolo Rossi

In the group stage of the tournament (six groups), Italy drew all the three games, and qualified for the next stage as second in their group, having more goals scored than Cameroon in the group stage (both teams had three draws). The next round at this World Cup was also a round-robin group stage of four groups (each group had three teams). Italy were grouped with Brazil and Argentina. In the last group of death match, Italy vs. Brazil, Paolo Rossi's hat trick saw Italy progress to the semi-finals.

In the semifinal match against Poland, Rossi scored two goals, and Italy won 2-0. The final was held in Madrid between Italy and West Germany. Italy won the final 3-1, with goals scored by Rossi, Marco Tardelli and Alessandro Altobelli. Rossi scored six goals in the tournament. Cabrini, Altobelli and Graziani all scored one goal each in the tournament.

Answer: USA

Nine cities across the USA hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, such as the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, Giants Stadium in New Jersey, Stanford Stadium in San Francisco and Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Italy beat Nigeria 2-1 in the Round of 16, then beat Spain 2-1 in the quarter finals, and then Bulgaria 2-1 in the semi final. The final was held in the famous Rose Bowl of California.

The location was three time zones away from the east coast of the USA, where Italy had played all their previous matches. The match ended in a goalless draw after extra time, taking the match to penalties. After Marcos Santos of Brazil and Franco Baresi of Italy missed the first penalty for each side, both teams scored two penalties each. Daniele Massaro and Roberto Baggio missed their penalties for Italy, leading to a win for Brazil.

Answer: South Korea

The 2002 FIFA World Cup was hosted by South Korea and Japan. It was the first time that the finals tournament was hosted in Asia. In a group stage match Italy vs. Croatia, Italy was denied two goals, and lost the match 2-1. Italy was eliminated by South Korea in the round of 16 match held in Daejeon, South Korea.

Italian striker Francesco Totti and coach Giovanni Trapattoni alleged a conspiracy to eliminate Italy from the tournament. Trapattoni alleged that this was done to keep one host team alive in the tournament, after Turkey defeated Japan 1-0 in another Round of 16 match.

The referee Byron Moreno controversially sent Totti off with a second yellow card, awarded South Korea an early penalty and declared a golden goal by Damiano Tommasi of Italy as offside. Sepp Blatter, the then President of FIFA, denied any match fixing.

Answer: Fabio Cannavaro

The final held in Berlin was won by Italy 5-3 on penalties after the match was drawn 1-1 after extra time. The match was infamous for French captain Zinedine Zidane's headbutting of Italian defender Materazzi as extra time was coming to an end. David Trezeguet was the French player who missed his penalty, leading to a victory for Italy 5-3 on penalties. All the Italian players were awarded the Italian Order of Merit of Cavaliere Ufficiale. Fabio Cannavaro played as a defender and won the Silver Ball in the tournament as the second best player.

The Golden Ball went to Zidane. Italy conceded only two goals in the entire tournament and kept five clean sheets. Cannavaro was given the nickname of 'The Berlin Wall' for his achievements. Gianluigi Buffon won the Lev Yashin award as the best goalkeeper. Fabio Cannavaro went on to win the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or in 2006.

Answer: Mario Balotelli

Italy defeated England in the quarter finals by 4-2 on penalties. Italy played against Germany in the semi finals, winning 2-1 with both goals scored by Balotelli. The final was held in Kiev between Italy and Spain. Spain crushed Italy 4-0 in the final, with David Silva, Jordi Alba, Fernando Torres and Juan Mata scoring a goal each for Spain. Spain and Italy had played each other before in a group stage match, which had ended in a 1-1 draw.

Cassano, Pirlo and Natale all scored one goal each in the tournament. Fernando Torres of Spain was awarded the Golden Boot, as he too scored 3 goals in the tournament but had played for the least amount of time. The third goal of Balotelli was scored in a group stage match against Ireland.