It is said things come in threes and sadly, it happened for the All Whites.

They secured a nil-all draw against Paraguay this morning at the FIFA World Cup but, crucially, could not secure the win they needed to progress to the second round.

With Slovakia's defeat of Italy, New Zealand finished third in their group and now head home.

The All Whites' run at the FIFA World Cup was one of the most wonderful rides in New Zealand sports history and there is no disgrace in going out of the tournament in the manner they did.

They go home undefeated.

Some people around the world might now know exactly where on that map New Zealand is.

They also finished ahead of defending world champions Italy and showed that a small country at the bottom of the world with only a handful of professionals can compete with the giants of world football.

But, the major surprise of the tournament came this morning when defending champions Italy, went down to Slovakia 3-2.

Robert Vittek's brace put Slovakia in control but Antonio Di Natale halved the deficit and Fabio Quagliarella looked like he had leveled it at 2-2, but an offside decision went against him.

Substitute Kamil Kopunek made it 3-1 to Slovakia before Quag-lia-rella's brilliant lob gave Italy fleeting hope, but they could not find a third to save their skins as they joined fellow 2006 finalists France in sinking out of the tournament at the first hurdle.

Slovakia now progress to the playoffs while Italy head home.

In other matches played this morning, Netherlands beat Cameroon 2-1 while Japan defeated Denmark 3-1.

Japan and Netherlands have qualified for the playoffs from Group E.

Looking at the upcoming games tomorrow morning at 2am, Portugal will play Brazil and North Korea will take on Ivory Coast.

At 6.30am Chile will take on Spain and Switzerland will play Honduras.

The playoffs will start on Sunday morning.

Looking at the fixtures, Uruguay will take on South Korea, Argentina is up against Mexico, England will face Germany, Japan will take on Paraguay, Netherlands is up against Slovakia and USA plays Ghana.