Argentina boss Alejandro Sabella said he did not dare to think about a dream World Cup final against arch-rivals Brazil after they made it into the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
Sabella said Argentina couldn`t afford to look beyond their next match — against either Belgium or USA on Saturday — after their narrow 1-0 win over Switzerland.
“Our dream is to work for the next match and try to move on to the semi-finals. We don`t look beyond that,” Sabella said.
“We can`t make the mistake of trying to take two steps when we can only take one step.”
Argentina lifted the World Cup in 1978 and 1986 but winning the title in Rio de Janeiro against arch-rivals Brazil would be the stuff of fantasy for their fans.
Sabella said the elimination of heavyweights Spain, Italy, England and Portugal showed Argentina could not take any opponents lightly.
Argentina could have been the latest big team to fall but Angel Di Maria`s strike two minutes before the end of extra-time saved them from a penalty shoot-out.
“I believe this was a game we deserved to win during the 90 minutes,” Sabella said. “In the second half we were clearly superior, we had five or six chances to score.
“And in extra time we had more chances… We played a beautiful game against a very hard team.”
