Alejandro Sabella feels Argentina fully deserved their 1-0 World Cup round-of-16 win over Switzerland after extra-time courtesy of Angel Di Maria's calm finish in the 118th minute.

The South Americans dominated play for the majority of Tuesday's encounter at the Arena Corinthians, but failed to beat Switzerland goalkeeper Diego Benaglio during regular playing time.

However, the Real Madrid attacker's goal after an intelligent Lionel Messi pass eventually prevented the game from going to penalties, much to the delight of Sabella, who was relieved to avoid a penalty shootout.

"The first half was quite close and Switzerland got two good chances to open the scoring. But after the interval, we started to show our credentials and we deserved to win," the Argentina coach told reporters.

"It was in 1998 when I was an assistant coach that we had to go through penalty kicks against England, but fortunately we could avoid that this time by winning after 120 minutes.

"We have to rest now ahead of the quarter-finals. We put in a great effort and got a just reward for it."

Argentina will meet either USA or Belgium in their quarter-final encounter at Estadio Mane Garrincha on July 5.