It seemed to me that the Italians were the clearly more talented side, but they didn’t play like it for much of the match as Australia held a nearly 60-40 possession advantage. An iffy red card reduced Italy to 10 men early in the 2nd half. On the whole, the Socceroos didn’t have many great scoring chances—the Italians’ chances always seemed more dangerous to me—but the way this game ended is what will make it infamous.
With 4 seconds left in extra time, the Italian player Fabio Grosso takes a flop in the penalty box and is rewarded with a PK. Totti slams it home as time runs out and the Australians, having outplayed Italy all game, lose 1-0. Undeserved victory, and an unfortunate continuation of some very poor refereeing that we’ve seen in the second round (and late first round). Nonetheless, there it is.