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 Australia progress after thriller
 Kewell celebrates his equaliser as Australia secure a match with Italy. SPECIAL REPORT
• Special: World Cup 2006
STUTTGART, Germany -- Australia reached the World Cup second round for the first time after holding Croatia to a thrilling 2-2 draw in their final Group F game. Harry Kewell equalised in the 78th minute as Australia twice came back from a goal down to earn the point they needed to finish runners-up to Brazil. They now face Italy in the last 16. Three players -- Croatia's Dario Simic and Josip Simunic plus Australia's Brett Emerton -- were sent off in a dramatic finale with Simunic being shown three yellow cards by English referee Graham Poll in the confusion. Croatia captain Niko Kovac had put his side ahead for the second time 11 minutes after the break with a long range shot that bobbled past Australia goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac. Australia defender Craig Moore had scored a 38th minute penalty to cancel out a third minute goal by Croatia midfielder Darijo Srna but it was Kewell's late goal that saw Australia advance to play Italy in Kaiserslautern on Monday. Srna caught the Socceroos napping early with a superbly taken free-kick after Australia captain Mark Viduka tripped Niko Kovac just outside the area. Srna, who had missed a penalty in Sunday's scoreless draw with Japan, made amends when he curled the ball over the wall past Kalac to score his country's first goal of the tournament. Australia regained their composure and looked to have strong grounds for a penalty when defender Simunic brought down Viduka but Poll ruled there was no foul. However, Poll had no hesitation in pointing to the spot seven minutes before the interval when Croatia defender Stjepan Tomas reached up and handled the ball in the goalmouth and Moore coolly slotted the penalty past Stipe Pletikosa. Croatia, who needed to win to stay alive after losing 1-0 to world champions Brazil then drawing with Japan, looked to have sealed victory when Kovac scored but Kewell's instinctive reflexes from a goalmouth scramble saw them bow out. The match ended in pandemonium after Poll showed Simunic a yellow card near the end of the match and the player, having been booked in the 62nd minute, began to walk to the touchline. However, the English referee seemed to forget about the earlier booking and Simunic stayed on the pitch until he was shown another yellow in stoppage time and was finally dismissed. "It feels great to qualify," said Viduka. "What a great game tonight, you could not ask for more. "We threw on all the forwards to try and get something and thank God Harry was in the right place at the right time. "It was such an end-to-end game, we had a little bit of luck on our side but we earned it tonight. It's very difficult when you concede a goal that early but we knew if we kept our composure we could do some damage. We showed we had the spirit to do it," added Viduka. 
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