In Berlin, Germany ousted Argentina 4-2 on penalties in the quarterfinal which ended 1-1 after extra-time.

German No. 1 goalkeeper Jens Lehmann denied the penalty shots from Argentine defender Roberto Ayala and midfielder Esteban Cambiasso to become the hero of the day. And Germany sealed the win from four spot kicks.

German coach Juergen Klinsmann praised the whole team for their solid defense and great confidence in the toughest duel they had ever met in the World Cup.

"I know Lehmann is good at denying penalties and his performance today proved that," Klinsmann said.

"Even they led us 1-0, I am sure we will come back to win," he added.

Argentina took the 1-0 lead on 49 minutes when world-class playmaker Juan Riquelme's corner was met by defender Roberto Ayalawho got ahead of German striker Miroslav Klose and steered a brilliant header into the net.

Argentina had chances to add to their advantage, most notably when Carlos Tevez set up Maxi Rodriguez but his usually reliable shooting escaped him and he fired into the side-netting.

After leading 1-0, the Argentines focused on defense and sent in defensive midfielder Esteban Cambiasso to replace Riquelme.

However, the Argentine defense line was broken in the 80th minute when Michael Ballack's cross was nodded by Tim Borowski to Klose whose vital header equaled the score.

Ballack said that Germany deserved their shoot-out win.

"That was sensational. The match was maybe not so interesting for spectators but it was a match at a very high level," Ballack, who was named Man of the Match, said.

Jose Pekerman said after the match that he won't coach Argentina any more.

"I think the cycle is over. I'm sure I'm not going to continue," Pekerman said.

"It was a very exciting match. We also played like favorites and gave our best although we lost," he said.

In Hamburg, Luca Toni scored twice as Italy breezed past Ukraine 3-0 to reach the semifinals.

The 1.94-meter striker nodded home Francesco Totti's left-wing cross in the 59th minute to make it 2-0 after defender Gianluca Zambrotta had put Italy ahead early in the first half.

The 29-year-old Fiorentina player killed off the match in the 69th minute with a close-range tap-in, fed by Zambrotta, who cropped up down the Italy left and found his man with a pinpoint cross.

"We couldn't understand why he hadn't scored until now so it's great news," Italy coach Marcello Lippi said.

The Azzurri controlled the match from the start and Ukraine, who eliminated Switzerland 3-0 in the second round in a penalty shootout, looked hard to pose any threat.

Juventus defender Zambrotta opened the scoring with a great strike in the sixth minute. He cut in from the right and lashed in a left-footer from 25 meters and Ukraine goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy palmed the ball into his bottom left-hand corner.

Ukraine head coach Oleg Blokhin made some tactical changes after 20 minutes, replacing defender Vyacheslav Sviderskyi with striker Andriy Vorobey and dropping Andriy Gusin at center-half.

But Italy continued to dominate and give the east Europeans no chance.

Germany and Italy will fight each other in the semi-final in Dortmund on Tuesday.