No team, not even Brazil, qualified for the knockout stages with quite as much comfort and style as Argentina and although their route to the final is a tough assent – they are scheduled to face the winners of Germany and England in the quarter-finals -  they have looked a team transformed from the one that stumbled to South Africa under Diego Maradona. This will be a very different side to the one that overcame Greece 2-0, a match in which Maradona rested half a dozen of his players. Jonas Gutierrez, whose deployment as a wing back was one of his manager’s most daring ploys, is likely to return from suspension to face a Mexico side, whose Barcelona star, Rafael Marquez,  said would be targeting what they considered to be a “vulnerable” Argentine defence, although they have conceded one goal in three games.

Mexico have never reached the quarter finals of a World Cup outside their own country and were they drawn against a different team they might fancy their chances. Nevertheless, the youth of this side means that history, that includes a 2-1 extra-time defeat to Argentina in the round of 16 four years ago, is easier to discard. “There was a time when we would have been inhibited by the thought of this game,” said Rafael Marquez. “Now, the feeling is – it’s Argentina, so what?” Nevertheless, their manager, Javier Aguirre, was bitterly disappointed by the timid way they approached their final group game, a deflating 1-0 defeat to Uruguay in Rustenburg. Carlos Vela, who missed that match through injury, is likely to return and Aguirre has overseen a rigorous training programme designed to increase the stamina he felt lacking in the Royal Bafokeng.

Eighty years ago in the first World Cup of all, Argentina met Mexico and won 6-3 in a match in which the Bolivian referee awarded five penalties. If Mexico felt a sense of injustice then, it was repeated in Leipzig four years ago in which they took the lead only to be pegged back and then beaten by Maxi Rodriguez. Mexico are a better side than they were in Germany but then so too are Argentina. If Lionel Messi has yet to score in South Africa, he has been the fulcrum of some outstanding play and he is determined to dominate the business phase of the tournament as much as he did the group stages. Verdict. Argentina to win.