Golden boy Ahn sends Italy crashing out

South Korea's idol Ahn Jung-hwan scored the golden goal which defeated Italy and sent the co-hosts through to the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in their history.

Ahn had been the villain of the peace when he failed to convert a fifth-minute penalty and his miss looked all the more glaring when Christian Vieri headed Italy ahead on 18 minutes.

But this Korean side never knows when they are beaten and in the 88th minute Seol Ki-hyeon equalised to send the second-round match in the Daejeon World Cup stadium into extra-time.

The drama continued as Italy's Francesco Totti was sent off for two bookable offences, the second for diving, and then with just four minutes of extra-time left, Ahn headed home the most important goal in the history of Korean football.

Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno had been spoilt for choice for Korea's penalty when Song Chong-gug swung a free-kick into the box as Christian Panucci held back Seol Ki-hyeon and Francesco Coco tugged Yoo Sang-chul's shirt.

Anyway, whichever one it was it was a penalty, but to the disbelief of the massed red ranks of the home fans, Ahn weakly hit the spot-kick to Gianluigi Buffon's right and the Italian goalkeeper saved it.

Vieri made Korea pay for this miss when he headed Italy in front in the 18th minute with his fourth World Cup goal and his 14th in 28 games for the Azzurri.

Francesco Totti delivered a corner to the near post and the Inter Milan hitman outmuscled Choi Jin-cheul to power home a header from three yards out.

Korea tried to respond and Ahn flashed a shot across the face of the goal after turning Mark Iuliano.

Vieri fired wide after being put through but did better a couple of minutes later when he powered through only for his shot to come off Lee Young-pyo and land on the roof of the net.

It seemed Italy had done enough, but then with just over two minutes of normal time left, Panucci made a hash of substitute Hwang Sun-hong's cross into the box and Seol pounced to score left-footed into the bottom corner.

Even then there was still time for both sides to score a winner and Vieri somehow managed to blaze over an open goal from just six yards out before substitute Cha Du-ri's overhead kick was saved by Buffon.

Into extra-time and yet more drama. Korea thought Hwang had done it when he threaded a free-kick under the Italian wall only for Buffon to save, diving to his left.

Then in the 103rd minute Totti was sent off when Moreno ruled he had dived when challenged by Song and showed him his second yellow card.

The Italians questioned another of Moreno's decision when he disallowed a Damiano Tommasi goal for an extremely marginal offside decision.

Both sides had chances to win and Buffon saved Hwang's header before Lee touched substitute Gennaro Gattuso's shot over the bar.

The in the 116th minute Ahn headed home to send Korea into the last eight and the whole country wild.