Australian soccer fans vent anger at loss

Australian soccer fans react as they watch their team fall to Italy on a large outdoor television screen in Sydney. Picture / Reuters

MELBOURNE - Angry soccer fans in Melbourne have hurled glass bottles and let off flares after Australia was eliminated from the World Cup by Italy earlier this morning, news agency AAP is reporting.

Most of the 10,000 soccer fans who had crammed into Federation Square in central Melbourne remained well behaved throughout the match, said the AAP report, but the mood turned nasty when Italy scored a last-gasp 1-0 victory today to secure a World Cup quarter-finals berth.

Shell-shocked fans watched big screens in disbelief as Francesco Totti's injury-time penalty killed the Socceroos' hopes of going through to the last eight.

Some Socceroos supporters vented their disappointment by throwing glass bottles at the big screen and stage area, narrowly missing security staff and media.

Other fans began kicking large plastic barricades placed around the stage area.

A flare was let off by a member of the crowd and landed on the roof of a building adjacent to the stage.

As fans began to make their way out of the area one man yelled "let's start a riot", according to AAP.

A fight broke out between a group of 15 soccer fans but was quickly brought under control by security staff and police.

More flares were let off along Swanston Street as the crowd began moving out of Federation Square.

Earlier at least four flares were let off when the match began.

"It seems to be that there are still those who insist on bringing them (flares)," Superintendent Mick Williams told AAP.

"I know there is a feeling out there that it is part of the soccer culture, but at the end of the day it is very dangerous."

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of football fans turned out all across Australia in the early hours of this morning to watch the Socceroos' heart-breaking World Cup exit.

Sydney had the largest gatherings.

There was a huge turnout in Leichhardt in Sydney's inner west - the home of the city's Italian community - where ABC Radio today reported 20,000 fans packed into Norton Street.

Rowdy Italian fans let off flares and hugged each other when the winning goal was scored, while despondent Australians skulked home after the game.

The crowds, meanwhile, were so big at Circular Quay that police were forced to ask late-arriving fans to go elsewhere.

The crowds had begun partying hours before the game began, intent on celebrating Australia's advance to a second round berth that few predicted before the tournament began in Germany.

In Norton Street, they crammed every vantage point to watch the game on a 10-metre screen, with those unable to find a spot at street level perching on balconies and shop roofs.

Prime Minister John Howard, in Indonesia on an official visit, was disappointed with the manner of the Socceroos' loss, ABC Radio reported this morning.

"I'm broken-hearted," he told reporters. "It's a very cruel way to lose, right on the knocker like that, but the team just played so bravely the whole match."

- HERALD ONLINE STAFF, AGENCIES