A glaring miss by Vieri brought howls of disbelief but there was little time to recover any nerves before Ahn Jung-Hwan settled the issue with the 'golden goal'.
Cafe Italia, Bar Italia and Little Italy were empty in seconds, as people avoided the televised reminders of what had happened.
A tearful Marina Nigrelli, 17, from Harrow, said: "Italy have a tendency to relax when they get a goal and they go defensive and lose it.
"This feels worse than when we've lost on penalties."
Another fan, Antony Juliani, 21, from Balham, offered a more sinister explanation.
"Fifa wanted us out - how can we have four goals ruled offside in two games?"