The four stars honor Italy as one of the most successful national teams in international football and World Cup history, having won four titles and competing in previous finals in 1970 and 1994, finishing third in Italy in 1990 and fourth in 1978. The shirt design also includes the Italian flag, which features five red stripes representing the blood spilled during the revolution of 1848, when the country adopted its current form; white stars between the red stripes represent the 50 states into which Italy is divided. Italy's first game wearing these jerseys was against Northern Ireland on June 16, 1971. The match ended in a 1-1 draw after extra time with Italy winning the penalty shootout 4-3. As you can see by the picture below, the jerseys were mostly yellow with red trim. Only the number on the back of each player's jersey was red. Four years later, in 1975, Italy played its first official World Cup match against South Korea. The two countries had been given equal status and were called "Azzurri di Prima Classe" (first class blacks) by FIFA. Italy won that first match 2-0. In the next round, it took Italy just 90 minutes to win its second game 3-0 over West Germany. This meant that Italy had eliminated both former world champions Germany and England from the tournament.