KWANGJU (South Korea), June 22: South Korea’s World Cup bandwagon rolled into the semifinals Saturday as the co-hosts took advantage of a linesman’s glaring error to beat Spain 5-3 on penalties after the quarterfinal ended goalless.

The co-hosts looked jaded after a punishing golden goal victory over Italy in the second round and appeared to be on their way out of the tournament three minutes into extra time of a poor quality game.

Joaquin, the 20-year-old winger who had been Spain’s most likely route to victory all night, clipped a ball over from the right for Fernando Morientes to head in at the far post.

South Korea won a reprieve, though, as the linesman had already raised his flag, ruling incorrectly that Joaquin had taken the ball over the goalline before crossing.

Cruelly, it was Joaquin, the youngest player in the Spanish squad, whose weak penalty was saved in the shootout.

South Korean skipper Hong Myung-Bo stepped up and calmly converted to make his side the first Asian team to reach the World Cup semifinals, where they will face Germany.

That is a remarkable achievement for a nation that had failed to win a single World Cup match in five previous appearances at the finals.

For Spain, it was another miserable end to a World Cup campaign that had promised so much. Spain have never finished higher than fourth, back in 1950, and they have now lost in the quarterfinals on four occasions.

With their leading forward Raul absent because of a groin injury they looked toothless in attack, although they still created the better chances.

The South Korean fans packing the stands had been relatively subdued as the game neared its conclusion and the atmosphere was not quite as intense as in the side’s previous victories over Portugal and Italy.

The supporters, who had created a huge mosaic at one end of the ground proclaiming the side to be “the pride of Asia”, exploded into life, though, when Hong crashed his penalty into the roof of the net.

“These fans are fantastic, without any violence, so I am so happy for them,” South Korea’s Dutch coach Guus Hiddink. “More dreams have come true.”

Hiddink, who had three separate coaching spells in Spain, consoled the Spanish players before celebrating his own side’s victory.

Match officials were surrounded by furious Spanish players at the end of the game in scenes that threatened to turn ugly.

Egyptian referee Gamal Ghandour had also disallowed a Spanish goal in normal time for what looked a marginal off-side decision.

The players spoke with grim resignation after the match, though, as they tried to come to terms with defeat.

“We knew the referee would be like that,” said goalkeeper Iker Casillas. “It is just what we expected.”

For both teams, it was the second time running that they had endured extra time, Spain beating Ireland on penalties and South Korea ousting Italy with a golden goal from Ahn Jung-hwan.

Casillas had been his side’s hero against Ireland but he could do nothing, although he came within a whisker of daving the first South Korea spot-kick from Hwang Sun-hong.

“Last week I said that penalties are a lottery and today I just couldn’t stop any of them,” Casillas shrugged.

Casillas had been forced into just one real save in the match, when he beat away a snap shot from Park Ji-sung on 67 minutes.

A Morientes header gave Spain their first good chance on 27 minutes, goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae clutching the ball gratefully just under his crossbar.

South Korea were getting nowhere, as Ivan Helguera and Ruben Baraja created a formidable barrier in front of the defence and Spain gradually took control of the game.

With halftime approaching, Javi de Pedro flashed a left-foot shot just wide from 20 metres and in injury time Fernando Hierro rose highest in a crowded area to head over.

Spain thought they had taken the lead four minutes into the second half. De Pedro’s free kick cross went in after hitting the back of Kim Tae-young as a group of players went up for a header but the goal was disallowed, apparently for off-side.

With both teams tiring, the match went into extra time and only two minutes into it, Morientes thought he had sent Spain into the semifinals.

Instead, the game went to penalties and the first seven were confidently converted before Joaquin’s weak strike was saved by Lee Woon-jae diving to his left.

Victory for Hiddink’s side over Germany would take them through to the Yokohama final on June 30. Brazil will play either Turkey or Senegal in the other semifinal. To get there they will almost certainly have to play better than they did Saturday, although Hiddink was in no rush to get to work on his preparation.

“We’ll have a little glass of champagne now and what comes tomorrow comes tomorrow,” Hiddink said.—Reuters