World Cup debutant Slovkia sent former world champion Italy back home after a dramatic 3-2 win in a life-or-death Group F match on Thursday.

Slovkia surged into last 16 with four points from three matches to join Paraguay, who topped Group F with 5 points after a 0-0 draw with New Zealand.

Looking more dangerous from the very beginning, the world cup debutant opened scoring in the 25th minute. Robert Vittek punished an awful mistake in Italy's defence, sliding a shot into the corner past Federico Marchetti's despairing dive.

While Andrea Pirlo's step-in instilled inspiration and Azzuri seemingly came back to life, Vittek added his second goal of the match in the 73rd minute. Antonio Di Natale poked in the rebound following Jan Mucha's brilliant save to keep Azzuri's hopes alive, but substitute Kamil Kopunek then scored the third for Slovakia to push Marcello Lippi's side onto the brink of elimination.

There was still time for Italy's substitute forward Fabio Quagliarella to rewrite the score sheet when he pulled back an injury-time goal, but it was just too late.