Australia's players were in a state of disbelief and anger after being knocked out of the World Cup on Monday through a last-minute penalty in their 1-0 second round loss to Italy.

Francesco Totti [Images] coolly converted the penalty to give his team victory after defender Fabio Grosso had tumbled over Lucas Neill's challenge despite Australian protests that the Italian had taken a dive.

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"I just can't believe it. We're in disbelief because anyone who watched the game could see that it was not a penalty," Australian midfielder Tim Cahill told reporters.

"I'm furious, it's unbelievable. Everyone says 'well done, Australia's played well, a pat on the back, you've proved everyone wrong' but we haven't.

"We should still be in this World Cup. I respect Italy [Images], they're a good team but so are we."

Italy played most of the second half with 10 men after Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo harshly showed a straight red card to Marco Materazzi for bringing down Marco Bresciano.

However, Australian midfielder Scott Chipperfield said most of the big decisions at the World Cup had gone against the less established footballing nations.

"They look after the big nations, they want the big nations through to the semis and finals. It's always the way," Chipperfield said.  

"Everyone's talking about the referee and not talking about how good the game is. It's something that needs to be looked at."

Australia have been embroiled in a series of squabbles with referees during the tournament.

"We're a small footballing nation that gets no favours. All we asked for was a fair go and I don't think we received it over the four games," Australia's assistant coach Graham Arnold said.

"From the sideline and what we saw on TV, it was a joke."

Australian captain Mark Viduka was sure the Socceroos would have won the match had the penalty not been awarded.

"It was very surreal. It's very, very cruel," Viduka said. "This was a game that we really dominated and we had the feeling that if the game went into extra time we would have beaten them."