The title of one of my earlier blogs was, "So Who's Going Through With Italy?" The answer it would seem is no-one, as the Azzuri have already stumbled off home, dumped out in the group stage and incredibly finishing bottom of a group containing adversaries they'd normally expect to account for reasonably comfortably.
So what's happened to the defending champions?
Defensively, there must be questions. The 3-2 loss to Slovakia in their final group game was their worst defensive performance at a World Cup since Pele's Brazil tore them apart 4-1 in the final 40 years ago in Mexico City.
Pre-tournament, the warning signs were there regarding the ageing squad Marcello Lippi put his faith in. Fabio Cannavaro looked a shadow of the player who marshalled Italy and lifted the trophy four years ago. He and Gianluca Zambrotta spent large parts of the game against New Zealand (and a bit of time since) complaining about the physicality of Rory Fallon. Andrea Pirlo was obviously missed, but others could have taken up his creative mantle. No-one did.
The Italians never score truckloads of goals, but they do enough to win. However, any cutting edge was completely lacking this time. A combination of good defending and poor option taking led to an inability to break down their opponents.The only way through against New Zealand was a penalty won by Daniele De Rossi's blatant dive. Even he laughed at the ridiculousness of the referee's decision.
Similar problems existed against Paraguay and Slovakia. Both made themselves difficult to break down, but the millions of Italians for whom football is a religion can still have realistically expected their team of multi-millionaires to have the ability to overcome them. They didn't.
Paraguay topped the group without ever setting the world on fire. The efficient win over Slovakia in game two was key and they then knew a clean sheet against New Zealand would be enough to seal their passage into the round of 16. This was duly delivered and Paraguay will now have designs on a quarter-final place.
Slovakia bounced back from the disappointment of a draw with New Zealand and loss to Paraguay to storm into the knockout phase with a brilliant win over Italy. This is surely the best result in their history, especially given its timing. It must have been daunting to enter the final day of the group in last place knowing nothing less than a victory against the world's number five team would be enough to progress. In Robert Vittek they have a striker bang in form and their captain and talisman Marek Hamsik is a player with a massive future.
But the real success story of the group was New Zealand. Going into the tournament, anyone predicting an unbeaten campaign would have been led away by men in white coats. But history will show the All Whites did just that, and while it wasn't enough to get them out of the group, it established credibility far beyond the hopes and expectations of the pre-tournament naysayers.
Worst team at the tournament they said. Whipping boys. Shouldn't even be here.
Well, history will show New Zealand accumulated more points than France, Italy, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, North Korea and Honduras and as many as Greece, Serbia, and Denmark. But more importantly, they galvanised a rugby-mad nation behind them and became the darlings of the World Cup. Not flashy and never arrogant, they were a team completely aware of their limitations and how best to utilise their collective skills to get results. And these three draws are up there with the All Whites' best results ever.
They probably won't feel satisfaction just yet. The disappointment of missing the knockout stage having come so close will still be too raw. But in a few weeks, or maybe months, when these players look back at what they achieved in South Africa, they'll do so with justifiable pride.
So what of the Group F teams' chances from here?
As mentioned above, Paraguay will back themselves to overcome Japan, which will feed them into a quarter-final against Spain or Portugal, an altogether more difficult task.
Slovakia, on the other hand, will have their work cut out to halt the Netherlands' perfect record so far at the tournament. However, even being there when sixteen other nations have already checked out is a marvellous achievement for a side at its first World Cup.
The World Cup winner won't come from Group F, but three of its four sides will be very happy with their campaigns. The fourth will have their country's anguish ringing in its ears for some time to come.