France 1938: The Third World Cup

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The third World Cup was held in Europe for a second time, although Germany had annexed Austria, and Spain was in civil turmoil.

Austria (who had already qualified for the tournament, after a play-off match with Latvia) withdrew and some of their players appeared for Germany.

England were offered a spot in the finals, in Austria's place, but the English didn't accept FIFA's invitation and so the finals started with 15 teams; Sweden receiving a bye.

Quick Links

France 1938 - Preliminary Round, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, Third place, 1938 World Cup Final.

World Cup History - France 1938

Uruguay and other South American nations were again disgrutled; they wanted the tournament in Argentina. Argentina withdrew, leaving Brazil the only representative from South America.

The Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) represented Asia without playing a single game in qualifying. Japan were at war with China and the United States refused another pre-finals play-off -- having beaten Mexico on their way to Italy 34.

For the first time, the World Cup holders and host nation automatically qualified; although the hosts wouldn't win the tournament on home turf for the third competition in succession and Italy were to make it two out of two instead -- comfortably beating the hosts in the Paris quarter-final, before overcoming Brazil in their semi-final and dominating Hungary in the final.

Sadly, the World War years meant no more World Cup football until Brazil 1950.

Preliminary Round

4th June
Paris: Switzerland vs Germany (1:1 aet)

5th June
Le Havre: Czechoslovakia vs Holland (3:0 aet)
Marseille: Italy vs Norway (2:1 aet)
Paris: France vs Belgium (3:1)
Reims: Hungary vs Dutch East Indies (6:0)
Strasbourg: Brazil vs Poland (6:5 aet)
Toulouse: Cuba vs Romania (3:3 aet)