How Italy won the 1982 World Cup: A slow start, Rossi’s resurgence, and Tardelli’s iconic scream

This article is part of The Athletic's series reviewing each men's World Cup winner, focusing on Italy's 1982 victory. It begins by listing the previous winners covered in the series, from Uruguay in 1930 to Argentina in 1978, and notes that Italy matched Brazil's three World Cup wins in 1982.

The piece challenges the cliché of Italy as "traditionally slow starters" by highlighting their strong opening games in earlier tournaments, attributing the stereotype specifically to the 1982 World Cup. Italy's initial performance was notably poor, with three unconvincing draws against Poland, Peru, and Cameroon, barely advancing from the group stage on goals scored, making their eventual win seem improbable at the time.

Italy's fortunes dramatically improved in the second group phase, where they defeated defending champions Argentina and favorites Brazil, followed by relatively easy knockout-stage wins over Poland and West Germany. Entering the tournament as underdogs due to their second-place qualification behind Yugoslavia and poor friendly results, bookmakers rated them as seventh-favorites, with concerns over key players and predictions of early elimination.

The article concludes by framing Italy's triumph as one of the World Cup's greatest underdog stories, given the dominance of favorites like West Germany and Brazil, and the emergence of Diego Maradona with Argentina. It also profiles manager Enzo Bearzot, describing his unique father-figure approach, emphasis on attacking football, and his media blackout during the tournament after facing heavy criticism in the initial phase.