eliminated Australia at 0–2 and advanced the other two teams, so the United States did not face Hungary. Semifinals The top two teams in each semifinal advanced to the final. Semifinal 1 In the first match, the United States defeated Great Britain 9–7. In the second, Italy and Great Britain tied: not only in bouts, 8–8, but in touches, 56–56. For the third and final match, then, Italy needed only to do better against the United States than Great Britain had; as soon as Italy won its 8th bout against the United States (leading the match 8–4), the pool was finished. That the United States could still have come back to win against Italy was immaterial; those two would advance regardless, with Great Britain eliminated. Semifinal 2 Hungary (11–5) and France (9–4) each defeated the Soviet Union, with the French–Soviet match stopped as soon as France reached 9 wins due to the certainty of the Soviet Union's elimination. Final The first two pairings saw France defeat the United States (10–6) and Italy beat Hungary (8–8, 59–63). France and Italy each won again in the second pairings, this time France over Hungary (11–5) and Italy against the United States (9–7). With two 2–0 teams and two 0–2 teams, the third set of pairings in the round-robin were effectively a gold medal match and a bronze medal match. Hungary defeated the United States 9–5 to take the bronze medal, while Italy prevailed over France 9–7 for the gold. References Foil team Men's events at the 1956 Summer Olympics