Australia has qualified for next year's soccer World Cup in Germany after beating Uruguay 4-2 on penalties in a heart-stopping qualifying match at Sydney's Telstra Stadium.

Australia was ahead 1-0 after the end of regulation time thanks to a Marco Bresciano goal in the first half.

But the qualifying match remained all square after Australia lost the first leg 1-0 in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo on the weekend.

The match went into two 15-minute periods of extra time but the deadlock could not be broken.

Successful penalties were taken by Harry Kewell, Lucas Neil, Tony Vidmar and Jon Aloisi.

Australian goal keeper Mark Schwarzer was the hero with two brilliant saves in the shootout.

Earlier Bresciano netted in the 34th minute after a delightful move involving Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, who had been introduced just four minutes earlier as a substitute, to send a noisy crowd of more than 80,000 into raptures.

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