Striker Francesco Totti coolly drilled home a penalty with the last kick of Italy's World Cup clash with Australia on Tuesday, sinking hearts Down Under and sending the Azzurri through to the quarter-finals.

The teams looked headed for extra time after over 90 minutes of scoreless play, but with seconds remaining Italian defender Fabio Grosso dribbled into the box and tumbled over Australian defender Lucas Neill, who had fallen to the ground.

In a controversial call, Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo pointed to the penalty spot and Totti powered a high shot into the right corner of Australian keeper Mark Schwarzer's goal.

Play never resumed. Cantalejo blew the final whistle seconds later, giving Italy, who played with 10 men for almost the entire second half, a 1-0 victory and a June 30 date in Hamburg against either Switzerland or Ukraine.

"So far the critics have really laid into me, but I've always said I'd prove myself on the pitch," Totti said after the match in the western city of Kaiserslautern.

"We suffered for long periods of the match, but in the end it was the whole team that won this match because Australia were a strong side. Now I think we can go a long way in this tournament."

For the Australians, who had not qualified for a World Cup finals for 32 years, the loss was a stunning disappointment.

"Overall you can have doubts about the penalty," Australia's Dutch coach Gus Hiddink told reporters. "We are very disappointed because we were so close but I can be very proud of the team."

Italy join Argentina, England, Germany and Portugal in the quarter-finals. All five teams won their group in the first round of the tournament, which will finish in Berlin on July 9.

Aggressive play

The Australians had been expected to copy the aggressive play that helped the United States earn a 1-1 draw with Italy in the group stage of the tournament.

But there were only brief glimpses of the vicious tackles and elbows that characterised that match and a card-filled encounter between Portugal and the Netherlands in Nuremberg on Sunday.

In Nuremberg, Russian referee Valentin Ivanov doled out red cards to four players and gave yellows to eight others, pushing the number of dismissals in the tournament to a new record.

In Kaiserslautern on Monday, Cantalejo pushed up that total by one to 24, dismissing Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the 50th minute for a sliding stud-first tackle.

Trouble off the pitch has been limited so far in this World Cup, with German police moving in swiftly to detain hooligans and other problem fans before they turn violent.

Police said on Monday that some 130 England fans who were detained after violence flared on Saturday in Stuttgart before England's World Cup match with Ecuador would be barred from the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Munich.

The western industrial city of Gelsenkirchen hosts England's quarter-final against Portugal on Saturday while the Bavarian capital Munich stages the July 5 semi-final in which England would play if they advance to the last four.

"To date the mood surrounding the World Cup has been happy and peaceful in Munich and that is how things should stay," city administrator Wilfried Blume-Beyerle said.