Yoo Sang Chul beats Ivan Helguera (Allsport).

By David Anderson, PA Sport, Gwangju

South Korea controversially beat Spain on penalties to become the first Asian side ever to reach the World Cup semi-finals.

After Lee Woon-jae had saved Joaquin's spot-kick, it fell to Korean captain Hong Myung-bo to convert the winning penalty.

Spain were furious with the officials and they had a perfectly good winner ruled out in extra-time when the assistant referee wrongly flagged the ball had gone out before Fernando Morientes scored.

Korea will now face Germany in the semi-final in Seoul on Tuesday as their impossible dream continues.

Once again the entire South Korean nation had come to a standstill to see if Guus Hiddink could work yet another miracle and lead their team to the semi-finals for the first time.

An estimated five million people had taken to the streets to watch the historic game on hundreds of outdoor screens.

However the red army of Korean fans had precious little to cheer about during the first half when Spain were the better side.

Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae had to work hard to keep out a header from Fernando Morientes and he almost crossed his own goalline after plucking the ball from the air.

Spanish skipper Fernando Hierro nodded a couple of headers over as Jose Antonio Camacho's side looked increasingly threatening.

Hiddink responded by replacing Kim Nam-il, who had twisted his ankle against Italy, with Lee Eul-yong and switching from 3-4-3 to 4-4-2.

However Spain still looked the more likely to score and Morientes just failed to get on the end of an inviting cross from the impressive Joaquin before De Pedro hit a left-foot drive just wide.

Spain thought they had scored on 49 minutes when Ruben Baraja headed home from a free-kick, but the effort was disallowed because Morientes was offside and Camacho kicked a water bottle in frustration.

Joaquin continued to be a threat and Lee saved his shot after one mazy run from the right wing.

Hiddink was not happy the way the game was going and just after the hour mark he brought Lee Chun-soo on for Yoo Sang-chul.

The change worked and Lee sent over a right-wing cross which came off Hierro's knee and almost ended up in the back of the Spanish net.

From the corner, Lee's shot came off Puyol and fell to Park Ji-sung and Casillas just managed to get his right hand to his shot to turn it behind.

Korea finished normal time the stronger and in the final minute, Casillas saved from Lee to send the game into extra-time.

Spain were robbed of a golden-goal winner two minutes into extra-time when the assistant referee wrongly flagged that the ball had gone out of play before Joaquin crossed for Morientes to head home.

Lee then whipped a free-kick just over Casillas' bar before Spain's bad luck continued in the 100th minute when Morientes shot against the post from a quick throw-in by Joaquin.

Casillas then saved a Hwang Sun-hong shot before the veteran striker weakly shot at goal from a decent opening.

The decisions continued to go against Spain and Luis Enrique was pulled back for offside when he had been onside and Morientes was booked for complaining.

But with neither side having managed a goal in 120 minutes of football, the quarter-final came down to penalties.

Teams

Spain: Casillas, Puyol, Nadal, Hierro, Romero, Joaquin, Helguera (Xavi 93), Baraja, De Pedro (Mendieta 70), Valeron (Luis Enrique 80), Morientes.

Subs Not Used: Albelda, Contreras, Curro Torres, Juanfran, Luque, Raul, Ricardo, Sergio, Tristan.

Booked: De Pedro, Morientes.

South Korea: Woon-Jae Lee, Jin-Cheul Choi, Hong, Tae-Young Kim (Hwang 90), Yoo (Chun-Soo Lee 60), Park, Yong-Pyo Lee, Song, Nam-Il Kim (Eul-Young Lee 32), Seol, Ahn.

Subs Not Used: Cha, En-Sung Choi, Sung-Young Choi, Tae-Uk Choi, Yong-Soo Choi, Hyun, Byung-Ji Kim, Min-Sung Lee, Yoon.

Booked: Yoo.

South Korea win 5-3 on penalties

Att: 42,114

Ref: G Ghandour (Egypt).