Semifinals set

Men's final four pits Argentina vs. Italy, Iraq vs. Paraguay

ATHENS (Reuters) -- Iraq's footballers beat Australia 1-0 on Saturday to reach the semi-finals of the Olymic men's tournament, triggering celebratory gunfire in their violence-racked country.

"People where I live [in Iraq] have suffered so much," said Qatar-based midfielder Emad Mohammed, who fired home the winner with a spectacular overhead kick in the 64th minute.

"It's very confusing for us and hard to keep our minds on the game. But we hope we can give a little happiness to our country," he said.

In Baghdad -- scene of frequent guerrilla atacks -- people fired guns into the air to vent their joy, honked car horns, sang and waved Iraqi flags.

The Iraqis grew in stature after Mohammed's goal and comfortably held out to reach the last four -- an almost fairytale achievement for a team that shares a training pitch with grazing sheep in Baghdad.

Iraq, whose only previous Olympic medal was a weightlifting bronze at the 1960 Rome Games, will face Paraguay for a place in the final.

Cheered on by supporters on the Greek island of Crete chanting "Iraq is back," Iraq survived a scare two minutes into the second half.

Anthony Danze bundled the ball over the line from close range, only for the "Olyroos" to be ruled offside.

Meanwhile, Italy's Cesare Bovo pounced in the 26th minute of extra time in Athens to overcome Mali 1-0 to send his country through and deny Africa a third straight Olympic title.

The result was greeted by jeering from Greek fans unhappy at the physical tactics of the Italians.

Italy take on Argentina in Tuesday's semi-finals after the tournament favourites thrashed Costa Rica 4-0.

Boca Juniors playmaker Carlos Tevez fired a brilliant hat-trick for Argentina, who have not won Olympic gold in any sport since the 1952 Helsinki Games.

Striker Fredy Bareiro scored twice as Paraguay survived a late fightback to beat South Korea 3-2 in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

Results

Iraq 1 Australia 0

Scorer: Emad Mohammed 64

Halftime 0-0

Teams

Iraq: 1-Nour Sabri; 7-Emad Mohammed (2-Saad Attiya 80), 3-Bassim Abbas, 4-Haidar Jabar, 8-Abdul Wahab Abu Al Hail, 10-Younis Mahmoud (9-Razzaq Farhan 71), 11-Hawar Mulla Mohammed, 12-Haidar Abdul Razzaq, 13-Qusai Munir, 14-Haidar Abdul Amir, 6-Salih Sadir (15-Mahdi Karim 60)

Australia: 18-Eugene Galekovic, 2-Jade North, 3-Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, 5-Jon Mckain, 6-Adrian Madaschi, 8-Luke Wilkshire, 9-John Aloisi, 11-Alex Brosque, 13-Carl Valeri, 15-Anthony Danze (16-Spase Dilevski 77), 14-Brett Holman (17-Ryan Griffiths 60)

Referee: Carlos Batres (Guatemala)

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Italy 1 Mali 0 - after extra-time

Scorers: Cesare Bovo 116

Halftime 0-0; 90 minutes 0-0

Teams

Italy: 18-Ivan Pelizzoli, 3-Emiliano Moretti (2-Giorgio Chiellini 118), 4-Matteo Ferrari, 5-Daniele Bonera, 8-Angelo Palombo, 9-Alberto Gilardino, 10-Andrea Pirlo, 7-Giampiero Pinzi (12-Andrea Gasbarroni 109), 14-Cesare Bovo, 15-Marco Donadel, 11-Giuseppe Sculli (16-Simone Del Nero 76)

Mali: 18-Cheick Bathily, 3-Adama Tamboura, 5-Boubacar Kone, 7-Tenema Ndiaye, 2-Mamadi Berthe (8-Abdou Traore 106), 15-Jimmy Kebe (9-Rafan Sidibe 120), 13-Dramane Traore (11-Sedonoude Abouta 82), 12-Drissa Diakite, 14-Momo Sissoko, 16-Moussa Coulibaly, 17-Mamadou Diallo

Referee: Carlos Torres (Paraguay)

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Argentina 4 Costa Rica 0

Scorers:

Argentina - Cesar Delgado 24, Carlos Tevez 43, 82, 83

Halftime 2-0

Teams

Argentina: 18-German Lux, 2-Roberto Ayala, 12-Mauro Rosales (3-Nicolas Burdisso 51), 4-Fabricio Coloccini, 5-Javier Mascherano, 8-Cesar Delgado, 10-Carlos Tevez, 11-Cristian Gonzalez, 15-Andres D Alessandro (13-Nicolas Medina 66), 6-Gabriel Heinze (14-Clemente Rodriguez 18), 16-Luis Gonzalez

Costa Rica: 18-Neighel Drummond, 4-Michael Umana, 5-Roy Myre, 9-Pablo Brenes (6-Whayne Wilson 77), 17-Jairo Arrieta (7-Eric Scott 46), 8-Jose Luis Lopez, 3-Pablo Salazar (10-Warren Granados 58), 11-Alvaro Saborio, 14-Jose Villalobos, 15-Junior Diaz, 16-Carlos Hernandez

Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece)

- - - -

Paraguay 3 South Korea 2

Scorers:

Paraguay - Fredy Bareiro 19, 71, Jose Cardozo 61

South Korea - Lee Chun-soo 74, 79pen

Halftime 1-0

Teams

Paraguay: 18-Diego Barreto, 2-Emilio Martinez, 3-Julio Manzur, 4-Carlos Gamarra, 10-Diego Figueredo (6-Celso Esquivel 46), 9-Fredy Bareiro (7-Pablo Gimenez 83), 8-Edgar Barreto, 11-Aureliano Torres, 13-Julio Cesar Enciso, 16-Osvaldo Diaz (15-Ernesto Cristaldo 76), 17-Jose Cardozo

South Korea: 1-Young Kwang-kim; 3-Chi Gon-kim, 4-Yong Ho-park, 14-Jung Woo-kim (5-Byung Kuk-cho 60), 6-Sang Chul-yoo, 7-Do Heon-kim, 10-Sung Kuk-choi (8-Kyung Ho-chung 56), 9-Chun Soo-lee, 2-Won Kwon-choi (12-Kyu Seon Park 77), 13-Dong Jin-kim, 17-Jae Jin-cho

Referee: Massimo De Santis (Italy)

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Semi-finals - Tuesday, Aug 24 (times GMT):

1500 Argentina v Italy
1800 Iraq v Paraguay

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