'Conta solo vincere' (only winning counts) has been the Italian players' mantra since their arrival in Germany, and Monday's 1-0 second round victory over Australia confirmed their new philosophy.

"We're not pretty to watch, but we are a tough team and difficult to score against," said midfielder Gennaro Gattuso after Francesco Totti's penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage time ended the Aussie's World Cup adventure.

Defender Gianluca Zambrotta insisted it wasn't easy to win with style at the World Cup with so much at stake.

"We are not robots and it's not easy to play well all the time," he said.

"But we fight to the last minute and we hope this desire can take us all the way."

Italy have been criticised for not showing the kind of flair with which Azzurri teams of the past used to excite and enthrall, but their defence is solid as a rock.

The Azzurri backline has conceded just one goal in four matches, an own goal at that.

In fairness to the Italians, they were unable to be too attack-minded against Australia following the dismissal of Marco Materazzi in the 50th minute for a crunching tackle on Marco Bresciano.

The referee judged that Bresciano was denied a goal-scoring opportunity and Materazzi was shown a straight red card, Itay's second sending-off in the competition.

Along with midfielder Daniele De Rossi, Materazzi will be suspended for the quarter-final against the Ukraine in Hamburg on Friday.

Striker Alberto Gilardino hailed the Italian defence for standing firm when Materazzi walked.

"Playing with 10 men for most of the second half was tough, but I thought we rarely looked in trouble even with a man less," he said.

"The defence were superb and didn't give anything away."

Gilardino believes Italy's lack of width is making them too predictable.

"We need to open up the game down the flanks rather than going through the middle all the time," he said.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi insisted his team fully deserved to beat the Aussies despite another unconvincing performance which suggests they will struggle to go much further in the tournament.

"I definitely wouldn't say we were lucky," said the 58-year-old after Italy had extended their unbeaten run to 22 internationals.

"We were very well organised at the back. We showed tremendous heart and great character."

Australia coach Guus Hiddink, who masterminded South Korea's shock second round win over Italy at the 2002 World Cup, was proud of his players for pushing the Azzurri all the way.

"We played well and we can be happy with our performance," said the Dutchman.

"When we had an extra man, we played some good football without scoring, but if you don't score, you don't win."