Weiss full of pride as Italy go home

Yorkshire referee Howard Webb and his assistants denied the increasingly desperate Azzurri an equaliser with the tightest of offside decisions.

Robert Vittek's brace put Slovakia in control but Antonio Di Natale halved the deficit and Fabio Quagliarella looked like he had levelled it at 2-2, but an offside decision went against him.

Substitute Kamil Kopunek made it 3-1 to Slovakia before Quagliarella's brilliant lob gave Italy fleeting hope, but they could not find a third to save their skins and joined fellow 2006 finalists France in bowing out of the tournament.

It got worse for Marcello Lippi's side when they discovered they would actually finish bottom of the group, New Zealand's 0-0 draw with Paraguay ensuring the Kiwis finished third, heading home with an unbeaten record.

Slovakia coach Vladimir Weiss, pictured right, declared afterwards he was, not surprisingly, an extremely happy man.

"First of all I may say it's so unbelievable, it was a fantastic day for us," he said.

"We had good preparation for the match with the staff and the players, after the birth of my son it's the second-best day of my life. I want to say thanks to the people of Slovakia, who followed us to South Africa, I am very proud of my team, they played a very high level for 80 minutes.

"There was big pressure in the last 10 minutes but we played a fantastic game and the better team won.

"Today we are happy people and this is a celebration. I believe today everyone is celebrating in the streets. I want to tell my wife that I love her."

New Zealand coach, Ricky Herbert Herbert, had nothing but praise for his squad.

"I am delighted with what the guys have done. I'll need to pinch myself," he said.

"Probably tonight was always going to be based on those one or two chances and if we got them then great.

"It is really great we are talking about beating the likes of Paraguay. That is fantastic.

"We will not go through another World Cup unbeaten.

"It is only our second time at the World Cup so to come here and completely reverse what we did before (they lost all three matches in 1982) is amazing.