World Cup History: Battle of Highbury 1934
Just five months after winning the World Cup, Champions Italy travelled to London to take on England in the match termed as “the real World Cup final” by the local press.
This match was the Italians first after their 2-1 win over Czechoslovakia in the World Cup final, while England had not made an international appearance because of the Football Associations withdrawal from FIFA in 1928, and so were not part of the prestigious tournament.
However, they still considered themselves to be the strongest teams in Europe, which is why the Battle of Highbury was termed as the World Cup final, suggesting that England were the better side and would have been in the final if they had participated in the World Cup.
Despite being one of the most violent matches in the history of the beautiful game, the match also set an interesting record. This was the first time so far that seven players from one club were in the starting lineup for England.
There were seven players from Arsenal; Frank Moss, George Male, Eddie Hapgood, Wilf Copping, Ray Bowden, Ted Drake and Cliff Bastin. The remaining players were Eric Brook (Manchester City), Cliff Britton (Everton), Jack Barker (Derby County) and Stanley Matthews (Stoke).
The match at the Highbury ground drew a crowd of 51,000, with Prince Arthur of Connaught, the Italian ambassador, Signor Grandi and the marchese Marconi also present. Constant update reports of the match were to be sent to Mussolini, who had apparently offered each player an Alfa Romeo car and £150 if they managed to win.
The match was violent from the start, when Drake broke the Italian centre half Luis Monti’s foot, who then had to be withdrawn from the match and with no concept of substitution, the Italians had to play the rest of the match with ten men.
Angered by the unfair treatment, the Italians retaliated, resulting in England captain Hapgood suffering a broken nose, Bowden a damaged ankle and Brook a fractured arm. Despite missing a penalty, which could have cost them the match, England scored three goals within the first 15 minutes giving them a comfortable lead over the Italians.
The World Cup champions were somewhat shocked by the attacking nature of the game, they were obviously not expecting such a strong challenge from a side that had not even competed in the recent World Cup. Maybe the fact that they were down to ten men after only two minutes of playing also affected their performance.
However, Italy made an impressive almost comeback in the second half of the match by scoring two goals and coming very close to a third. The Italians seemed to have forgotten that Monti was missing, putting up a brilliant display with some very determined dribbling, tackling and free kicks.
Giuseppe Meazza was Italy’s hero as he scored both goals and was only denied the third by England’s goal keeper, Frank Moss who made some very impressive saves throughout the match. But the Man of Match award was given to Wilf Copping who impressed by containing the opposition with his strong display in midfield.
The English were on the attack when the final whistle blew, but upon hearing the whistle the Italians stopped and gave the Fascist salute. The Italians were pleased they had come from 3-0 down to losing 3-2, with many lost opportunities to score an equalizer. That could have been due to the Italians apparent interest to go for man rather than ball.
But despite losing to England, Italy were crowned The Lions of Highbury. Even though they lost the match, they won the battle of Highbury.
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