The Chollima team, too, was now more confident, and the crowd cheered them on, even as the Italians, appearing calm and sure of themselves, dominated the game. Three times in the first half the Flying Panther leaped high and wide to block what looked like certain goals. In the 34th minute, the Italian center back and captain, Giacomo Bulgarelli, collided with Pak Seung-zin, pulling a muscle, and having to be carried off on a stretcher. Substitutions were not allowed back then; the Italians had to play the rest of the game with 10 players.
The Italian defense found it difficult to reorganize without Bulgarelli. In the 41st minute, they distanced a harmless ball to the center of the field, and it was headed back to the right side of the box. Pak Doo-ik, Korea’s No. 7, broke loose from the dreaming defender at his side, coolly allowed the ball to bounce twice on the grass and then, with the inner side of his shoe, sent it toward the low, near corner of the net. The goalkeeper, Albertosi, leaped, but too late: The ball slid under his arm into the net. “Who would have believed it?” the British television commentator shouted.
Under pressure, the Italians abandoned their group game, as player after player tried by himself to salvage the honor of the homeland, but to no avail. The Koreans won. Some call it the greatest upset in World Cup history. “Many of us cried in the dressing room,” Mazzola related years later. North Korea advanced to the quarterfinals, together with the Soviet Union.
After the game, the North Korean team was invited to a festive meal hosted by the mayor of Middlesbrough. The next day, the team traveled by train to Liverpool, for the quarterfinal game against Portugal. Throughout the trip they sang, had their pictures taken with British women in floral hats and gave autographs to awestruck fair-haired children. No one in the world was happier than the North Korean soccer team: The Great Leader’s request had been fulfilled.