Italy ended the Czech Republic's World Cup campaign with a 2-0 victory in Hamburg that ensured that the Azzurri topped Group E.

Goals from Marco Materazzi and Pippo Inzaghi were enough for Italy against a Czech side who had Jan Polak sent off just before half-time.

Italy made the brighter start, but Pavel Nedved tested Azzurri goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon a couple of times with impressive efforts from distance.

Seventeen minutes in Alessandro Nesta limped off to be replaced by Materazzi, who would go on to be a key figure in the victory.

Nine minutes after coming on, the Internazionale stopper rose superbly to head home Francesco Totti's corner from the right, leaving Czech keeper Petr Cech clasping at thin air as the ball flew in at the far post.

There were few other chances before the interval, but Polak managed to be booked twice in ten minutes for fouls on Mauro Camoranesi and Totti to leave his side a man short.

Soon after the restart David Rozehnal's dreadful back-header almost let in Alberto Gilardino, but he failed to make the most of the chance.

Soon after Cech made a fine save from a rare Totti effort that was on target, before Nedved brought a solid stop out of Buffon after an impressive break from midfield.

A clever Totti free-kick eventually handed Fabio Cannavaro a good chance at the far post, but he volleyed over the crossbar from 12 yards.

The closing minutes saw few signs of a Czech revival and seven minutes from time Inzaghi should have sealed the result, but he headed wide of an open goal after good work by Andrea Pirlo.

However, he made no mistake four minutes later as he broke the offside trap and ran on to Simone Perrotta's pass to round Cech and roll the ball into the empty net.

That spelled the end for the Czechs, with Ghana's 2-1 win over the USA taking them through to the last 16 along with the Azzurri.