Two goals in three minutes gave Croatia a remarkable 2-1 victory over World Cup favourites Italy today as the upsets continued.
The unfancied Croatians were trailing to a 55th-minute Christian Vieri goal, his third of the tournament, when first substitute Ivica Olic and then Milan Rapaic struck to produce yet another turn up for the books.
It was only Croatia's second appearance in the finals, having finished third in France four years ago, and they had been written off as a spent force after their opening Group G defeat by Mexico.
Vieri took his tally for the tournament to three, after his two against Ecuador, when he struck in the 55th minute with a text book header and continued his extraordinary record in the World Cup, making it his eighth goal in seven games.
The Italians had already suffered a serious setback when they had to reshuffle their defence after just 24 minutes when Alessandro Nesta hobbled off with an ankle injury to be replaced by Inter Milan centre back Marco Matterazzi.
After an eminently forgettable first half, punctuated by errors, free kicks and few clear-cut chances, most of which fell to Croatia, Vieri had the ball in the net and got his name into the book for protesting too vociferously after the effort was ruled offside, but it looked a close call.
He finally broke the deadlock with a looping pinpoint header just below the bar and into the corner from Cristiano Doni's cross from the right in the 55th minute.
Vieri had a chance to double the lead on 70 minutes but fired over and it proved a costly miss for three minutes later substitute Olic left it all square as he slipped between Fabio Cannavaro and Materazzi, both rooted to the spot, to slide home Robert Jarni's cross.
Then three minutes later, Rapaic got under a loose ball and lobbed it over the heads of the Italian defence to put Croatia ahead in a game they were expected to lose. They now have a serious chance of going through to the second round.
Francesco Totti had a chance to level shortly before the end with a perfectly hit free kick which hit the post with goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa stranded and watched it roll agonisingly across the face of the goal and away to safety.
They had the ball in the net in injury time as Filippo Inzaghi ran on to a long through ball but it was ruled out for shirt-pulling.