Three-time champion Italy lost to South Korea 2-1 after the Koreans tied the score with two minutes to go in regulation and then won the game in overtime.

The goal came after the referee ejected key Italian playmaker Francesco Totti in a disputed call 13 minutes into overtime. An Italian goal that would have won the game in overtime was disallowed for offsides, but replays showed that the play appeared to be good.

At every questionable call by Ecuadoran referee Byron Moreno, fans hurled water bottles at his image on a giant TV screen set up outside Milan's cathedral.

Some 50,000 fans sweltered in Duomo Square where temperatures closed in on 104 degrees. In Rome, it was even hotter, 106 degrees in enormous Piazza del Popolo, and water hoses were used to keep fans cool.

Immediately after the game, Italians seemed frozen in disbelief. Then a kind of collective sullen mood set in, with anger over the referee's calls bubbling out.

Soccer commentator Fabrizio Maffei likened the referee to a cold-hearted surgeon.

Italy was eliminated "by a scalpel," Maffei said, adding after a dramatic pause: "only with no anesthesia."

On one of several TV talk shows dissecting the game, showgirl Elenoire Caselegno said: "We weren't playing only just against 11 players," implying the referee was against Italy.

Totti was given a yellow card for diving and ejected since it was his second such card. But the replay seemed to show him falling over the ball not trying to draw a penalty.

Italy had five goals disallowed in the tournament.

Tuesday's game against the Koreans "was unfair. They played well," said Ciata Vargiu, a college professor from Sardinia, as she trudged out of the Rome square.

But some said, while the ref's calls didn't help, Italy blew it, too.

"The net was open, and every time they missed it," said Angelo Puggioni, a fellow fan from Sardinia.

Millions of people had left work at lunch time to follow the game with friends and family at home or in cafes with TV sets. Travelers in train stations or airports caught the action on screens set up for them.

Italy's poor showing in the first round, which the team scraped through after winning just one of its three games, and the memory of a stinging loss 36 years ago to Korean players ­ from North Korea in the 1966 World Cup ­ had contributed to the pre-game mood of trepidation.

The last time Italy failed to qualify for quarterfinal play was in 1986.