The Tournoi international de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris (the international tournament of the Paris exhibition) was an international club football tournament which took place from May to June 1937. It was arranged to coincide with the international exhibition being held in France that year. Eight clubs from around Europe were invited to participate. The tournament was won by Italian champions Bologna, who beat English side Chelsea 4–1 in the final.[1][2][3] Bologna's victory marked the first time that an Italian team won an international tournament against an English team.[4]
Carlo Reguzzoni scored a hat-trick for Bologna in the finalA moment of the match
The final took place on 6 June in front of a crowd at the Saint-Ouen. Bologna imposed themselves physically and with their ferocious desire to win, but they also showed a sense of security that hindered Chelsea.[2] The first ten minutes saw the English side produce some brilliant and inspired moves, easily dribbling past their opponents. However, the Italians managed to organize themselves and took the lead when Carlos Reguzzoni opened the scoring after an error by full-back Ned Barkas. The now more determined Bologna quickly and clearly imposed themselves on the game, and just six minutes later Giovanni Busoni doubled their lead;
Bologna managed to score a third before the break, again via Reguzzoni.[2] In the second half, Bologna relaxed due their three-goal advantage, and the English took advantage of this to take control of the game, but they failed to find a goal because of the great Bologna defence, which included the unbeatable Carlo Ceresoli between the posts, the physical strength and class of Dino Fiorini and the positional sense of Felice Gasperi.[3] Reguzzoni sealed his hat-trick in the 65th minute with a goal against the run of play, and thus gave Bologna a resounding 4–0 lead. Chelsea was able to salvage a small measure of honour with a fine solo move by Sam Weaver.[2] The best Bologna players were Ceresoli, Reguzzoni, Sansone and Andreolo and Fedullo, all of whom were South Americans.[2]
