Australia grab dramatic draw to go through

Australia reached the World Cup second round for the first time after holding Croatia to a 2-2 draw in their final Group F match on Thursday.

Three players -- Croatia's Dario Simic and Josip Simunic plus Australia's Brett Emerton -- were sent off in this match. There was an interesting snippet when Simunic appeared to be shown three yellow cards by the referee.

Srna opened the scoring for Croatia from a free-kick when when he curled the ball over the wall past Australian goalkeeper Kalac to score his country's first goal of the tournament. Australia regained their composure and were unlucky to have a penalty denied by referee Graham Poll when defender Simunic brought down Viduka.

In the 52nd minute, a penalty was finally awarded when Croatia defender Stjepan Tomas reached up and handled the ball in the goalmouth. Defender Craig Moore then coolly slotted the penalty past Stipe Pletikosa. Croatia, who needed a win to qualify seemed to have sealed victory when captain Niko Kovac fired a long range shot that bobbled past Kalac in the 56th minute. However, Kewell's instinctive reflexes from a goalmouth scramble in the 78th minute destroyed their hopes. With this result, Australia now face Italy in the last 16.

It was an end-to-end game for the Soccer Pundit. Both teams displayed the fighting spirit and determination to win but the Australians had a bit more luck to force a draw and scoring out of the blue. This is turning out to be a fairytale for the Aussies and who knows when it may end, they could just go all the way to the semi-finals but whatever it is, this team has already earned themselves a place in their country's soccer history for making it this far.