Argentina beat Switzerland 1—0 to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup on Tuesday thanks to an extra-time goal from Angel Di Maria.
The breakthrough came in the 118th minute when Lionel Messi released Di Maria and he shot past Diego Benaglio.
The Swiss were aiming to reach their first World Cup quarter-final since 1954 and almost equalised when Blerim Czemaili hit the post a minute later but Argentina held on to the delight of their 10,000 supporters inside the Corinthians Arena.
It had been a frustrating afternoon in Sao Paulo with Messi unable to add to his four tournament goals so far. He had his first shot smothered by Swiss keeper Diego Benaglio on the quarter-hour and then cut between Ricardo Rodriguez and Valon Behrami only for Rodriguez to recover his position and clear.
Di Maria was also causing the Swiss problems and when he won a free-kick just outside the penalty area Messi took it and found the head of Gonzalo Higuain who headed over.
Anything Messi could do at one end Xherdan Shaqiri was showing he could match. Shaqiri dribbled around Marcos Rojo and pulled the ball intelligently back to the edge of the area where Granit Xhaka drilled a low shot goal wards that Romero saved.
Switzerland had an even better chance shortly after when Shaqiri raced away on the break. The ball ran straight to Josip Drmic who only had the keeper to beat but inexplicably he lofted a weak shot into the hands of Romero.
Switzerland started the second half on the front foot with Shaqiri testing Romero with a free-kick that almost crept in at the keeper’s near post.
For Argentina, Rojo got forward from full-back to draw a save from Benaglio and then crossed for Higuain, whose header was brilliantly tipped over by the Swiss keeper.
Higuain again should have done better with a header, this time glancing Pablo Zabaletta’s cross wide. Messi also went close with a shot from distance as Argentina pressed. Rodrigo Palacio came on for Argentina and the Inter Milan striker almost scored with a header from his first touch after he connected with a Messi cross.
Di Maria had the best chance of the first period of extra time, racing away down the left but producing a poor cross at the end of it that was cleared by Johan Djourou.
He also had the first chance of the second period with a shot that Benaglio tipped over and finally with two minutes left he went one better finishing from Messi’s astute pass to send Argentina through.
