Latest updates: Memorable day at the World Cup

All Whites players celebrate Shane Smeltz’ goal during the World Cup group match against Italy in Nelspruit. Photo / Brett Phibbs

10.50am
Italy coach Marcello Lippi was (understandably) a bit testy at the press conference today. Not only were his decisions criticised, but he expressed annoyance at New Zealanders like Rory Fallon "elbowing my players all the time". Italy are without a victory in 2010, so Lippi may be advised to start checking the Sits Vac section of newspaper Il Messagero. He and his squad won't want to emulate the fate of Italy's team at the 1966 World Cup in England; eliminated by lowly North Korea at the first stage of the competition, they were pelted with rotten tomatoes by fans when they arrived back in Rome.

10.35am
Someone in the office has discovered that NZ has 25 professional footballers, Italy has 3541. "Puts things in perspective, doesn't it", he writes.

10.30am
Everyone's talking about whether the All Whites will get lucrative contracts after the World Cup, due to their awesome attention-grabbing efforts. But meanwhile, goalkeeper Mark Paston is making it big in that all-important arena these days: social media. Paston's number of fans on Facebook stands at 631 and is growing steadily. Go on, head there and click "Like". You know you want to.

10.15am
Here in NZ it's the shortest day of the year today, June 21. I'm thinking it's going to be a long one for Kiwis in the bars of Rustenburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg, though.

10.10am
The Australian website is asking readers, which result has been the biggest upset?
* NZ holding Italy
* Algeria holding England
* Switzerland beating Spain
* Serbia beating Germany
* Mexico beating France.
All stunners, that's for sure.

9.52am
Other matches? Oh well, I suppose they kind of matter. Brazil beat Ivory Coast in the morning's final match, 3-1. That puts Brazil through to the second stage.

9.30am
Match commentator Andrew Dewhurst writes that the blatant dive of Danielle de Rossi that led to the penalty for Italy was an example of "the ugly side of football. (All Whites defender) Tommy Smith briefly grabbed the Italian's shirt ... but ... De Rossi was even laughing after the incident, such was his disbelief at having successfully conned the officials."

9.25am
Few people are better placed to assess the All Whites' performance than John Adshead, the man who was in charge of the team back in 1982. He tells nzherald reporter Michael Dickison:
"(Italian) journalists wrote before the game that New Zealand presented a bleak lineup of technical inadequacy.
The fact of the beautiful game - football - is you don't have to be the creme de la creme of technical ability. There's another factor.
If you're willing to work and defend in numbers and work for each other and play this game in a manner that suits your abilities, you can get a result.... I think without a doubt this is the biggest result in All Whites' history."

9.15am
Raewyn Court emails from the Middle East: "As a kiwi sheila currently living and teaching in Kuwait, it was awesome to watch the game live in the local mall, surrounded by Arabs. The kiwi brand is popular with these very warm and hospitable people", writes Raewyn.

9.05am
SportsFreak on Twitter reckons, if New Zealand and Italy both draw their last matches by the same score then it's a coin toss. Can't be. Doesn't it go back to something like corners, penalties, yellow cards, something like that?

8.50am: Arise, Sir Mark?
NZ Football chairman Frank van Hattum, New Zealand's goalkeeper during the 1982 World Cup, tells Radio New Zealand that goalkeeper Mark Paston "had an absolutely fantastic game. I did say to the Prime Minister 'this man deserves a knighthood' and he said 'he can have whatever he wants right now'."

8.40am
Optajean on Twitter makes an interesting observation: England, Spain, Germany, Italy & France have won only 1 of their 9 games at World Cup 2010. The year of the underdog? Hope so!

8.20am
Radio New Zealand's correspondent in Italy, Frances Kennedy, says the feeling in Italy is not quite panic, but "a sense of apprehension".
She had seen some "pretty grim faces", Ms Kennedy said.
In Naples, a funeral poster had been prepared beforehand to announce the death of New Zealand - "but they won't be doing that again", she adds.

7.55am
nzherald.co.nz checks out how the world's media are reporting the All Whites' tremendous result in Nelspruit.

7.10am
All Whites goalkeeper Mark Paston, who was close to the man-of-the-match with his series of dazzling saves to keep New Zealand in the contest, tells AFP he found the game "fun" despite his heavy workload.

6.40am: What's Italian for 'really worried'?
"Flop Italia Ora si rischia!" screams the headline in Italy's leading football newspaper, La Gazetta dello Sport. Which I think means something about Italy being on the brink of elimination in a tournament they were expecting to win.

5.35am
All Whites coach Ricki Herbert has a thing or two to say to those who mocked New Zealand's route through the Oceania zone to the finals as 'too easy'. "We've done pretty well for a team ... with some amateurs, who some think shouldn't be here in South Africa", Herbert tells the Herald's Chris Rattue.

5.20am
"Take a look at the points table", writes Herald football reporter Michael Brown, from the stadium. "Look again. Sitting in second, equal with Italy, are New Zealand."

4.55am
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who watched the game in Nelspruit, tells Herald football blogger Stuart Dye how much he admired the courage shown by the Kiwi XI. "The atmosphere was terrific", says the PM. "A great day to be a New Zealander", he adds.

4.50am
Italian coach Marcello Lippi tells the Associated Press that while his players had been unlucky, they had also fallen well short of his expectations.

4.35am
All Whites captain Ryan Nelsen says the referee restricted one of the New Zealanders' key strengths by penalising us harshly for challenges in the air. Nelsen says the official was star-struck by the flashy Italian superstars, going down in a heap and clutching at their faces in "agony".

4.20am
All Whites coach Ricki Herbert says the team's focus is now on winning the final pool game against Paraguay - a result which would put NZ through to the next round.

3.45am
The referee blows his whistle for fulltime and the All Whites have done it - drawn 1-all with world champions Italy.

- NZHERALD STAFF