Captain Fabio Cannavaro has responded angrily to suggestions that Italy were lucky to beat Australia in the second round of the World Cup.

The Azzurri scraped a 1-0 win when Francesco Totti converted a stoppage-time penalty awarded after Fabio Grosso tumbled theatrically in the box.

That led to suggestions that the victory was undeserved, but Cannavaro insisted Italy had played the better football despite being reduced to ten men when Marco Materazzi was harshly sent off shortly after half-time.

"It annoys me to hear this stuff about Italy being lucky after all that we produced in that game," said the Juventus defender.

"How many shots on target did they have? One or two. We had six or seven chances to kill the game off.

"The luck was with them - they were able to play 11 against 10."

Italy now take on Ukraine in the quarter-finals on Friday, but will do so without the suspended Materazzi and injured Alessandro Nesta.

That is likely to mean that Palermo's Andrea Barzagli will partner Cannavaro in the centre of defence.