Marco van Basten described Argentina as playing "Top of the Pops" football.

The Dutch coach watched his side battle to a goalless draw against the South Americans who have played the most eye-pleasing football of this World Cup so far.

The result meant Argentina topped Group C on goal difference and will now play Mexico in the last 16 while Holland face Portugal.

Van Basten said: "I have seen progress in my team tonight. Argentina are a high quality team and they are playing 'Top of the Pops' football.

"But at the end we could have won the game although that would have been too far. But it was a good performance."

Van Basten rested five players on yellow cards, including Chelsea's Arjen Robben.

Van Basten said: "We can be satisfied with the result. We wanted to win the game and play good football. Now we play against Portugal who are an excellent team. But also we are not bad."

If Holland get past Portugal they could face England in the quarter-finals, if Sven-Goran Eriksson's men beat Ecuador in Stuttgart on Sunday.

Van Basten, explaining his decision to exclude Robben, said: "Sunday's game is a more important game than against Argentina.

"If you lose on Sunday you're going home. Of course we would have liked Robben to play but we had to be prudent.

"If we are lucky we still have four finals to go. We must not make any errors because from now you cannot recoup them."

Argentina coach Jose Pekerman also left out key players such as captain Juan Sorin, Javier Saviola and Hernan Crespo but teenager Lionel Messi was handed his first start at this World Cup and 22-year-old Carlos Tevez was named man of the match.

Pekerman said: "We faced a tough opponent and it was a very balanced match. Argentina could have won. We had more scoring opportunities.

"The players did a good job but there is always a lack of continuity when you change something in a team.

"I'm satisfied. The team was good and whatever is still lacking we know we can compensate for that in the match in three days time."

The one sour note for Argentina was a knee injury to midfielder Esteban Cambiasso.

Pekerman said: "I am worried because he is a player who is very important for us.

"We will see what the doctors say and hope it is not really serious. It would hurt us very much if he was not ready."