Italy advances past Australia on last-second penalty kick

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany -- Italy needed the very last kick of the game to reach the quarterfinals.

Francesco Totti's penalty kick on the final play lifted Italy past a surprisingly stout Australia 1-0 on Monday.

Totti, who came on in the second half, sent his penalty kick high to the right of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer moments after the controversial call on Lucas Neill. Schwarzer guessed correctly, but couldn't stretch far enough to get the ball before it sailed into the net.

Neill was called for fouling Fabio Grosso with 12 seconds left in injury time of a tentative match filled with yellow cards and one ejection -- a growing trend at the World Cup. Spanish referee Luis Medina immediately pointed to the penalty spot, even though Grosso tripped on his own as much as being forced down by Neill, who already was on the ground.

Italy plays Friday in the quarterfinals against Ukraine.

Ukraine 0, Switzerland 0 (Ukraine wins shootout 3-0)

COLOGNE, Germany -- Ukraine made the quarterfinals in its first World Cup by blanking Switzerland for 120 minutes, then shutting out the Swiss in the shootout .

Goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskyi didn't have to work very hard all night, especially in the shootout. Two Swiss misses were right at him, the other went off the crossbar.

Meanwhile, Artem Milevskiy, Serhiy Rebrov and Oleg Gusev hit the net after Ukraine star Andriy Shevchenko's weak, low shot was stopped by Switzerland's Pascal Zuberbuehler.

The Ukrainians mobbed each other in a pile after the win.

The Swiss, who did not yield a goal in the entire tournament until the shootout, stood stunned at their lack of marksmanship from the penalty spot in the first shootout of the tournament.

-- The Associated Press