The United States will play Spain in Sydney while Cameroon will meet Chile in Melbourne in the semifinals of the Olympic soccer tournament on Tuesday after they all came through four dramatic quarter-finals on Saturday.
Cameroon scored the most unlikely victory -- beating gold medal favourites Brazil 2-1 with a 113th minute golden goal winner despite being reduced to nine men following a second red card on the stroke of full-time.
Chile knocked out defending champions Nigeria 4-1 in Melbourne, while Spain scored four minutes from time to beat Italy 1-0 in Sydney.
The United States beat Japan 5-4 on penalties after they drew 2-2 at the Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide.
At The Gabba in Brisbane, Cameroon scored one of the greatest upsets in Olympic soccer history, not so much because they beat Brazil, but because of the manner of their victory.
Cameroon looked all set for the last four as the last minute of the match approached. Leading 1-0 thanks to a superb 17th minute free-kick from Patrick Mboma, his third goal of the tournament, Cameroon appeared to have weathered the sending off of their skipper Geremi Njitap for a second yellow card after 75 minutes.
With German referee Herbert Fandel looking at his watch, Brazil launched one last raid as Aaron Nguimbat brought down Brazilian skipper Alex on the edge of the box and was also sent off.
With just 12 seconds left to play Ronaldinho equalized with a free-kick to send the match into extra time.
Brazil looked set for victory, but, as they had been in regular time, were denied by 16-year-old goalkeeper Carlos Kameni, the star of Cameroon's win which was sealed when substitute Modeste Mbami lashed home a right-foot drive from the edge of the box after a rare Cameroon counter-attack.
Reports from Saturday's other matches:
Chile 4 Nigeria 1
Chile knocked out defending Olympic champions Nigeria with a superb 4-1 win in Adelaide to set up their semifinal against Cameroon. Chile's man-of-the-match was Rodrigo Tello who set up two goals and scored the fourth himself. Ivan Zamorano took his tally for the tournament to four as Chile swept into a 3-0 halftime lead. Reinaldo Navia also scored, and joined Zamorano on four for the competition.
Nigeria, without suspended skipper Celsetine Babayaro and defender Azuibuike Oliseh, hardly made any impression but got a consolation goal when Victor Agali scored 14 minutes from time.
United States 2 Japan 2 (United States won 5-4 on penalties)
Japan were only a minute away from the Olympic semifinals when they led the United States 2-1 at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium before they gave away a penalty which Pete Vagenas converted to force the match into extra time.
There were no more goals in the extra half-hour and the game was decided by penalties.
Both teams scored all their penalties until Japanese star Hidetoshi Nakata, the most experienced player on the field, missed with his with the score at 3-3. That allowed Josh Wolff to put the U.S. 4-3 ahead on penalties and although Japan made it 4-4 with their last penalty, Sasha Victorine scored the fifth to put the United States though.
Japan led twice in normal time through Atsushi Yanagisawa (30) and Naohiro Takahara (72), but the Americans fought back with goals from Wolff (68) and Vagenas's last minute penalty.
Spain 1 Italy 0
Spain stayed on course to repeat their 1992 Gold medal success with a 1-0 win over Italy in Sydney with substitute Gabri scoring the only goal of a tough, hard fought match, after 86 minutes. Gabri linked well with his Barcelona team mate Xavi to score and send the Italians to their first defeat at this level for two years.
Spain, the last European team left in the competition, now meet the United States in the semifinal at the Sydney Football Stadium on Tuesday.
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