Reliving The Biggest Stage of Football: World Cup 1938

The reliving of old memories continue here as we proceed to the third World Cup in 1938 held in France. The tournament started in June 4 and ended in June 19.

To read about World Cup 1930, click here.

To read about World Cup 1938, click here.

Fifa's decision to hold the tournament in Europe again outraged some American nations. As a result, Argentina and Uruguay did not take part in the competition.

Again, 16 nations took part. And this time around, the tournament was freshened with the inclusion of Dutch East Indies (currently known as Indonesia) which was the first Asian nation to participate in World Cup.

The World Cup 1934's format was kept. The teams headed into knockout stage straightaway without the group stage system.

Austria withdrew from the tournament and allowed Sweden to walkover and proceed to the quarter-finals.

The other seven teams that made the quarter-finals were France, Italy, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Hungary, and Cuba after beating Belgium, Norway, Poland, Netherlands, Germany, Dutch East Indies, and Romania respectively.

Defending champion Italy defeated host nation France 3-1 in the quarter-finals as Sweden trashed Cuba 8-0.

Brazil and Hungary also made the semi-finals after defeating Czechoslovakia and Switzerland respectively.

Italy edged Brazil 2-1 in the semi-final to make it through to the final again.

Hungary comfortably romped past Sweden 5-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Gyula Zsengellér.

Brazil won the third placing match after beating Sweden 4-2.

The final was held in Paris and Italy became the first nation to retain the trophy after defeating Hungary 4-2.

Leônidas da Silva of Brazil was the top scorer of the tournament with seven goals.

A total of 84 goals were scored in the 18 matches played.

The World Cup is a tournament held once every four years since its start in 1930. However, World Cup 1942 and 1946 couldn't be held due to World War 2.

The World Cup resumed in 1950 and will be summarized next in this World Cup series.