SAO PAULO // After 117 minutes of skewed shots, misplaced passes, air kicks, failed rabonas and a host of niggling fouls came four minutes of madness as Argentina needed extra time to defeat Switzerland 1-0 and book a place in the World Cup quarter-finals.
With three minutes remaining of the additional 30 and a penalty shoot-out looming, Lionel Messi collected the ball in midfield, drove forward, rode a Swiss challenge and fed Angel Di Maria, who fired first time across Diego Benaglio to send his country into rapture.
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"Luckily, we were able to win the game in extra time," Alejandro Sabella, the Argentina coach, said. "We were nearly in a penalty shoot-out, it was just a matter of a few minutes, but then there was a ball from midfield given to Messi in a very advantageous position, and obviously a player such as Messi, having the ball in such a position can cause a lot of danger."
It was harsh on Ottmar Hitzfeld's side, who had come closer to opening the scoring in the early exchanges, first through Granit Xhaka and then when Josip Drmic found himself played through on goal with Sergio Romero only to chip the ball into the goalkeeper's hands.
For two teams ranked as the fifth and sixth best in the world, however, the standard was disappointing.
"The first half Switzerland were on top, then it was us," Sabella said. "It was a strange game. They had two clear chances, but in the second half we were clearly superior, we had five or six shots at goal and in extra time we also had more chances. We deserved to win."
Di Maria, before his goal, had been his side's busiest player without ever producing a moment of real quality. A few wasteful crosses, poor decision making from good positions and one cross with his left foot behind his right that went straight out of play was all he had to show for his performance until the 109th minute when he became the first player to seriously test Benaglio.
"We know that this could happen to us, but we gave our souls out there on the pitch, we fought with our lives for each ball and we ended up as the winners," Di Maria said.
"The heroes are 23 players and the technical staff. We always tried to play, we just made one mistake in the first half. The win is more than well deserved, we made a great effort."
Javier Mascherano agreed: "We played the whole of the second half in our opponents' half of the pitch. We couldn't score but, after pressing so much, Messi and Di Maria showed up."
Messi, marked by two Swiss players for most of the match, was relatively quiet, but as he has shown throughout his career, he requires only one chance.
"Nobody said it would be an easy match," Messi wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of himself, Di Maria and Ezequiel Lavezzi.
"It's another step."
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Argentina’s relieved Sabella: ‘Luckily, we were able to win the game’
Gary Meenaghan talks to coach Alejandro Sabella after Argentina's narrow victory over Switzerland minutes from the end of the extra-time on Tuesday at the 2014 World Cup last-16.
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