AHN Jung-hwan was the toast of South Korean football with a golden goal in the second period of extra-time that sent Italy home from the World Cup.

The goal gave South Korea a 2-1 victory over three-time champions Italy, and sees them advance to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time.

South Korea moves on to battle Spain on Saturday at Gwangju in the last eight.

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.

That result also sent the little-known Asian side into the quarterfinals and sent the European giants home.

The momentum swung dramatically in South Korea's favor during the first half of extratime 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.

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.

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.

Panucci gave the Koreans a chance to grab the opener after just five minutes, when the AS Roma defender pulled Seol down by hisshirt in the box and the referee awarded a penalty.

But Buffon turned aside the spot kick from Ahn, who went on to become a hero in the world of South Korean football.