THE BATTLE OF HIGHBURY

We have some qualifiers coming up so I thought you guys would enjoy some azzurri calcio history to discuss before....link below....full article from link below that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Highbury




Battle of Highbury

The "Battle of Highbury" was the name given to the football match between England and Italy that took place on 14 November 1934 at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London. England won 3–2 in a hotly contested and frequently violent match.

Background

This was Italy's first match since they had won the 1934 FIFA World Cup that summer, although England had not taken part as the Football Association had left FIFA in 1928. England were still considered one of the strongest teams in Europe at the time, and the match was billed in England at least as the "real" World Cup final. The match was important enough to the Italians that Benito Mussolini had reportedly offered each player an Alfa Romeo car and the equivalent of £150 (about £6,000 in modern terms) if they beat the English.

The match set a record, in that it was the first and so far only time that seven players registered with the same club (namely Arsenal) started for England.[1][2] Coincidentally, the match was played at Arsenal's home stadium, Highbury. In addition to the seven Arsenal players (Frank Moss, George Male, Eddie Hapgood, Wilf Copping, Ray Bowden, Ted Drake and Cliff Bastin), a young Stanley Matthews won his second cap for the side; Cliff Britton, Jack Barker and Eric Brook were the other three players. The England side was largely inexperienced, with every player having fewer than ten caps for his country.

Match summary

First half

After only two minutes the Italian centre half Luis Monti had his foot broken in a rough tackle with Drake. Although Monti remained on the field for 15 minutes, he eventually had to leave the game leaving his team with ten men - at the time, no substitutes were allowed. Further, as Monti continued to play, other Italian players may not have been aware of the extent of his injury which is likely to have contributed to England's goals; England scored all its three goals in the first 12 minutes (at 2', 10, and 12'), while the Italians continued to play tactics where Monti was the last defender faced by the England attack. Eric Brook and Cliff Bastin caused the Italians 'an infinite amount of trouble by their passing and quick shooting'.[3]

Brook had missed a first-minute penalty after Drake was fouled by Carlo Ceresoli (who was able to save the goal with a prompt jump on the right). However he made amends by scoring twice, with a header (following a precise cross from Stanley Matthews) and a free kick, which Stanley Matthews described as being like a 'thunderbolt'.[4] Drake added a third before half-time to make it 3-0. However, after realising the gravity of Monti's injury, the Italians adjusted their playing tactics so that England were unable to break through their defences.

The match was violent from the very start, with the visitors repeatedly retaliating against Drake's second-minute tackle: Eddie Hapgood had his nose broken (and had to be withdrawn for 15 minutes), while Bowden damaged his ankle, Drake was punched and Brook had his arm fractured.

Second half

However, Italy were not World Champions for nothing and after half time, despite the handicap of ten men, took the game to England. Giuseppe Meazza scored twice, and was only denied an equaliser by the woodwork and a series of saves from England's athletic goalkeeper, Frank Moss. Copping, England's "hardman", took the man of the match award with a strong fighting and tackling display in midfield.

The match settled nothing; although the English could claim a win and unofficially crown, the Italians claimed[citation needed] they had been handicapped for virtually the entire match by being a man down, and that England had scored only within the few minutes in which its stronger defendant had been injured and not able to run. For this reason and despite the loss, in Italy the team players are still celebrated as "The Lions of Highbury". One thing that could not be contested was the violent nature of the match; the FA considered withdrawing from all internationals as a result, while Matthews would later recount that it was the most violent match of his long career.

Kits

England wore a white shirt and navy blue shorts. Italy wore traditional blue shirts and white shorts.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santiago_(1962_FIFA_World_Cup)

Battle of Santiago (1962 FIFA World Cup)

The Battle of Santiago (Italian: Battaglia di Santiago, Spanish: Batalla de Santiago) is the name given to a particularly unsavoury and infamous football match during the 1962 FIFA World Cup. It was a game played between host Chile and Italy on 2 June 1962 in Santiago.[1] The referee was Ken Aston, who later went on to invent yellow and red cards.[2]

Build-up to the match

In this Group 2 clash, already heightened tensions between the two football teams were exacerbated by the description of Santiago in crude terms by two Italian journalists Antonio Ghirelli and Corrado Pizzinelli; they had written that Santiago was a backwater dump where "the phones don't work, taxis are as rare as faithful husbands, a cable to Europe costs an arm and a leg and a letter takes five days to turn up", and its population as prone to "malnutrition, illiteracy, alcoholism and poverty. Chile is a small, proud and poor country: it has agreed to organize this World Cup in the same way as Mussolini agreed to send our air force to bomb London (they didn't arrive). The capital city has 700 hotel beds. Entire neighbourhoods are given over to open prostitution. This country and its people are proudly miserable and backwards."[3] Chilean newspapers fired back, describing Italians in general as fascists, mafiosos, oversexed, and, because some of Inter Milan's players had recently been involved in a doping scandal, drug addicts.[4] The journalists involved were forced to flee the country, while an Argentinian scribe mistaken for one of them in a Santiago bar was beaten up and hospitalised.[1]

Chile's organization and preparation of the tournament had been severely disrupted by the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the strongest earthquake ever recorded in human history. Articles in the Italian papers La Nazione andCorriere della Sera were saying that allowing Chile to host the World Cup was "pure madness"; this was used and magnified by local newspapers to inflame the Chilean population. The British newspaper the Daily Express wrote "The tournament shows every sign of developing into a violent bloodbath. Reports read like battlefront despatches. Italy vs Germany was described as 'wrestling and warfare'". The journalists involved were forced to flee the country, while an Argentinian scribe mistaken for one of them in a Santiago bar was beaten up and hospitalised had to leave the country before the World Cup fearing for their own safety: a few days before the match an Argentinian journalist, mistaken for an Italian, was beaten up in a bar in Santiago.[5]

Match

The first foul occurred within 12 seconds of the kick-off.[1] Italy's Giorgio Ferrini was sent off in the twelfth minute after a foul on Honorino Landa, but refused to leave the pitch and had to be dragged off by policemen. Landa retaliated with a punch few minutes later, but he was not sent off.

English referee Ken Aston overlooked a punch by Chilean Leonel Sánchez to Italian Mario David, which had come in retaliation for being fouled seconds earlier. When David kicked Sanchez in the head a few minutes later, he was sent off.

In the violence that continued, Sanchez broke Humberto Maschio's nose with a left hook, but Aston did not send him off. The two teams engaged in scuffles and spitting, and police had to intervene three more times. Chile won the match 2–0.

When highlights from the match were shown on British television a couple of days later (not the same night, because film of matches still had to be flown back), the match was famously introduced by BBC sports commentator David Coleman as: "the most stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful exhibition of football, possibly in the history of the game."[1]

 

but there is no match dubbed "the battle of livorno"....also I'm not quite sure what historical relevance this has to the azzurri unless you're just trying to make jokes

the battle of highbury was of the utmost importance at the time as a show of world football superiority. this is evidenced by the fact mussolini was willing to buy each player an alfa romeo and give them each a lot of money if they won. England at this time was considered by many to be one of the best international sides in the world but they couldn't take part in the last 2 world cups having left fifa in 1928 therefore having no claim as official champs. So England and Italy arranged an "unofficial final " which many saw as the real display as to who are most worthy of being world champions. 60.000 people showing up for an unofficial match in 1934 just goes further to illustrate that point.

This match was not contested as your typical friendly....it was fought ferociously in a different more violent football era and was really a final in both countries eyes...so whatever Croatia-Italy friendly your mentioning that took place 70 years later in a different era is of no comparison... even if you're just trying to make a joke of the Battle of Highbury

also at no point in football history was croatia considered the unofficial World Champs, even if just by Croatians after winning a friendly