Messi talks about Argentina's shootout victory over Colombia

Despite the large number scoring chances, Argentina couldn't beat the Colombian goalkeeper until the penalty shootout, which Argentina won to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Copa América. Despite the fact that the game was decided on spot kicks, striker Lionel Messi emphasised his team’s excellent play.

"It was amazing. It was the best game we've played in the Cup. We created situations everywhere. We were lucky with the penalties," said Messi.

Messi was chosen as man of the match against Colombia, despite not having scored. Messi did have five shots on goal.

"I would have liked to have scored a goal, but the important thing is that we won. Now we face Brazil or Paraguay," he said. "While we were lucky with the penalties, we deserved to go through based on what we did over the full 90 minutes," he added.

Mascherano: "We tried scoring in every way possible."

"Today I had one very clear chance but I couldn't score," Messi lamented, while stressing that "the important thing is that the team played a great match ... We're relaxed now."

Meanwhile, defender and fellow FC Barcelona teammate Javier Mascherano felt "there is no doubt that we were superior. We played the game we wanted to play and did it up to the last minute. We should be proud to have played that way against a very tough team."

Mascherano also said Argentina had taken "a huge step forward. We went all out for the goal ... Games can also be analysed based on the quality of the opponent and Colombia has a lot of high quality players. They were the revelation of the [2014] World Cup. We controlled the game and we forced them to try and adjust," he added Mascherano.