The reaction said it all, Emiliano Martinez sprawled, spent, his very last drop given in the cause of his country. Nicolas Otamendi knew it too, collapsed alongside his goalkeeper, a win and a place in the last eight of this World Cup only then finally and mercifully secured.
It had taken every effort, every sinew of the two-time winners, dreamers of a third in a fortnight’s time, to survive an onslaught from an Australia that never thought they would be here at all.
