"This was the group of death, but at the end Argentina finished first," Tevez said.

Messi, who left after 69 minutes, had his chances. But several times he seemed to make one too many fancy moves, going one-on-one just a bit too often.

His best chance probably came in first-half injury time when he broke from midfield and ripped a ball from 20 meters (yards) that Van der Sar deflected away.

"They (the Dutch) were difficult," Messi said. "They held us very well on defense and we're just glad to have won the group. It was an entertaining game even though there were no goals."

Netherlands striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy gave the clear advantage to Argentina.

"You could feel the strength of Argentina in midfield," he said. "We had our hands full. We can't deny that. We didn't have a chance to create a lot of chances _ hardly any. We had to hold on for the result."