BORDEAUX, France — After 120 minutes of cautious, grindingly intense play followed by eight rounds of often farcical penalty kicks, a relatively unheralded defender for Germany, Jonas Hector, struck a fairly mediocre shot from 12 yards out that somehow slithered under Gianluigi Buffon, the star Italian goalkeeper, who essentially dived over the ball. Relieved, Hector jumped around with his teammates; gutted, Buffon collapsed on to his back.

It was that sort of night here at the Stade de Bordeaux, as Italy could never quite do enough and Germany, barely, continued its historical dominance in penalty shootouts, defeating the Italians by 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the quarterfinals of the European Championships. The Germans, who are the defending World Cup champions, will not quibble over their ugly victory; they beat Italy in a major tournament for the first time in nine games, and on Thursday in Marseille, they will play either France or Iceland for a place in the final.

Between now and then, however, one imagines that Germany’s coach, Joachim Löw, will have a simulated shootout or two, if only so his players can rid themselves of any lingering feelings from Saturday’s affair, which will surely go down as one of the worst shootouts between two top teams.

Six players missed in a wide variety of ways during the first five rounds, including Thomas Müller’s weak side-footed attempt for Germany, Graziano Pelle’s yanked shot past the post for Italy, Mesut Ozil’s bank off the upright for Germany and, most bizarrely, Simone Zaza’s endless stutter-step run up that seemed to take hours before he blasted the ball miles over the net.