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DAEJEON, South Korea (Ticker) -- Ahn Jung Hwan more than made up for his missed penalty kick. Ahn headed home the winner with three minutes left in extra time as South Korea shocked three-time champion Italy, 2-1, and advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time. South Korea moves on to battle Spain in the last eight on Saturday at Gwangju. "Three months ago, we started working very hard and before that we had been working for a long time," South Korea coach Guus Hiddink said. "One of the things I have to give credit to my players is that they keep on fighting and they also learned tactically a lot in the few weeks, which was incredible." Italy suffered a second embarrassing defeat to a team from this peninsula. In the opening round of the 1966 World Cup, Pak Doo Ik scored the lone goal in North Korea's 1-0 upset of Italy in Middlesbrough, England. That result also sent the little-known Asian side into the quarterfinals and sent the European giant home. The momentum swung dramatically in South Korea's favor during the first half of overtime on a controversial decision by referee Byron Moreno of Ecuador. Moreno issued Francesco Totti his second yellow card of the match for allegedly diving when the television replay clearly showed a clean tackle in the box legally brought the Italian playmaker down. With his team reduced to 10 men and having seen the replay on a nearby TV monitor, Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni banged on the transparent back of his dugout to get the attention of a FIFA official, who simply shrugged his shoulders. "It was a match full of emotions, a beautiful game and Korea played with their heart. Korea definitely had a few advantages. I don't understand why we had to become a victim of bad decision-making. I think the winner should be Italy," Trapattoni said. Christian Vieri recorded his fourth goal of the tournament 18 minutes into the contest, joining Brazil's Rivaldo and Denmark's Jon Dahl Tomasson in a third-place tie on the list of the World Cup's goal-scoring leaders. Vieri also collected his ninth World Cup goal all-time, matching the Italian record held by Paolo Rossi. Italy held on to that advantage until the 88th minute, when Christian Panucci failed to clear the ball from the Azzurri penalty area and Seol Ki Yeon's snap shot beat goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. "After Italy was left with 10 players, I thought we could win this match," South Korea midfielder Park Ji Sung said. "We tried hard to end the game before it went to a penalty shootout." Panucci gave the Koreans a chance to grab the opener after just five minutes, when the AS Roma defender pulled Seol down by his shirt in the box and the referee awarded a penalty. But Buffon turned aside the spot kick from Ahn, who plays for Italian club Perugia. After failing to post a victory in its previous World Cup appearances, South Korea became the first Asian nation to reach the World Cup quarterfinals. Italy entered the match without two of its starting defenders. Alessandro Nesta was sidelined due to a foot injury and Fabio Cannavaro was serving a one-match ban after collecting two yellow cards in the opening round. The Azzurri's esteemed defense is well-known for its ability to maintain slender leads. But for the second time in the tournament, the Italians failed to hold on to a 1-0 advantage late. On June 8, Ivica Olic and Milan Rapaic scored during a three-minute span as Croatia rallied to beat Italy, 2-1. |
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