The officials are surrounded at the end (Allsport).

By Ian Parkes, PA Sport, Ibaraki

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The Italian football federation (FIGC) have confirmed that they will not be launching an official protest to world governing body FIFA following the poor officiating during their controversial 2-1 defeat to Croatia.

England's Graham Poll was the referee in charge of a match which saw the Croats complete a remarkable comeback at the Kashima Stadium in Ibaraki to throw Group G wide open.

But it was Danish linesman Jens Larsen at the centre of the storm as he disallowed what appeared to be two perfectly legitimate goals for Giovanni Trapattoni's side during a sensational second half, watched by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

Raffaele Ranucci, head of Italy's World Cup delegation, had said after the match that the FIGC was considering making a complaint, but the federation's website has since published a statement from Ranucci saying that no such move is planned.

"The FIGC is not even thinking about taking any formal action regarding the refereeing," said Ranucci.

"We don't like self-pity, and we don't even want to consider conspiracies, plots and things like that against Italy.

"Unfortunately, we paid the price for refereeing errors that can happen, the match was refereed like any others."

Ranucci himself went to speak with Poll after the match to ask about the two goals that were disallowed.

"Poll told me that Vieri was offside on the first goal, while there was a foul by Inzaghi, who grabbed on to the defender's jersey on the second goal.

"We were unlucky, we paid for 10 minutes of black-out during which the Croatians scored two goals.

"We are used to suffering, it's like this every time we need to qualify. Now the match against Mexico becomes important, we had our feet on the ground before our match against Ecuador and even more on the field against Croatia."

Christian Vieri looked to have given Italy a 51st-minute lead when he headed home Gianluca Zambrotta's flick from a Cristiano Doni cross, only for Larsen to raise his flag to the disgust of all in the Italian camp.

Television replays showed conclusively both Zambrotta and then Vieri were onside, adding fuel to the Italian fire which raged in the aftermath of their shock defeat.

Just four minutes later Inter Milan star Vieri did grab the opener, and his third goal in two matches, by conclusively looping a header from another Doni cross beyond Croatia keeper Stipe Pletikosa.

But Italy then committed cardinal errors in defence as Croatia scored two goals in four minutes through substitute Ivica Olic and then star man Milan Rapaic, deservedly so as they had been the far more inventive, attractive side.

With the clock ticking there was still time for more drama as Francesco Totti, who has criticised Poll, first hit the post with a curling 25-yard free-kick.

Then in injury time, another substitute in Marco Matterazzi, sent a raking ball out of defence, ultimately eluding all in the Croatia area as it found its way into the net, with Filippo Inzaghi doing enough to divert the attention of Pletikosa as he slid in.

Inzaghi, however, was the man penalised by Larsen as the Dane raised his flag for a second time after spotting a shirt tug on Mario Simic, although the Inter Milan left back was also guilty of committing a similar offence.