Argentina captain Julian Montoya praised his side’s spirit after they fought back to beat Wales and reach the World Cup semi-finals.
Argentina trailed 17-12 in Marseille but dug deep to clinch a 29-17 victory to the delight of their raucous fans.
“We like to be a team that fights for everything,” said Montoya. “It’s how you embrace the moment and fight for each other.
“Two more weeks with this team. I don’t want this to end ever.”
Argentina lost their opening pool game to England but have now won four games in a row and will face New Zealand in Friday’s semi-final at the Stade de France in Paris.
The Pumas finished third in the 2007 tournament held in France and fourth in England in 2015 but believe they can go further this year.
“We knew that first game would be rough for us and we learned a lot from it because we had a lot of World Cup first timers,” said head coach Michael Cheika.
“There hasn’t been a radical turnaround, we’ve just built from what we’ve learned. The progress hasn’t been lineal, but all that work we put in as a foundation has paid off.
“We’re starting to get a bit of flow and one thing this team has always had is lots of flow. We just didn’t handle the occasion against England.”
‘Band of brothers’
Matias Moroni’s spectacular diving tackle which denied Louis Rees-Zammit a late try in the corner proved crucial.
“I ran with my club, with my family, with my friends and with this whole band of brothers,” said Moroni. “Fortunately, we were able to win it.
“We knew it was going to be a very tough game. We started dominating and I’m not going to talk much about the referee, but there were some calls we didn’t agree with. However, we always trusted our game plan to win the game.”
Argentine fans created an incredible atmosphere in the Stade de Marseille that helped inspire their team.
“First of all let me say thank you to all the people of Argentina. It is an honour, I am very proud to be Argentine and wear these colours,” said Montoya.
“I am very proud of the team.”
