So, Argentina will play Venezuela or Canada in the semi-finals after a scruffy, unconvincing win over Ecuador. Emi Martinez was their hero with two penalty saves in the shootout, which means Lionel Messi’s missed Panenka will become a footnote rather than a headline.

Full time: Argentina 1-1 Ecuador (4-2 pens) A very good penalty, dragged into the bottom left corner. Argentina have won on penalties again!

Argentina 3-2 Ecuador Argentina will have to serve it out. Caicedo’s penalty wasn’t the best but Martinez dived past it.

Argentina 3-1 Ecuador The World Cup winner sends Dominguez the wrong way to move Argentina within one kick, or more likely one save, of going through.

Argentina 2-1 Ecuador Good penalty, whipped to his right. Martinez went the wrong way for once.

Argentina 2-0 Ecuador Very good penalty, curled into the bottom-right corner. Ecuador are on the brink.

Argentina 1-0 Ecuador This is ridiculous. Martinez guesses right again and stretches to claw away Minda’s penalty. He’s broken Ecuador’s will.

Argentina 1-0 Ecuador A brilliant penalty, curled top right. Dominguez went the right way but had no chance.

Argentina 0-0 Ecuador He’s done it again. Mena’s penalty was well struck but at a decent height for Martinez, who dived to his left, pushed it away and set off in celebration. He is remarkable.

He tried a Panenka and hit the top of the crossbar! There aren’t enough exclamation marks in the world!

“Perhaps the Argentine defender would have been better playing defence while Ecuador attacked down his side right before the equaliser instead of writhing around on the ground acting like he was injured,” writes Russell Eberts. “The football gods are always watching.”

Mother Football’s gonna get ya.

“Messi’s teams (club and country) have won a ridiculous number of shootouts in a row,” says Robert Speed. “It can’t last, can it?”

Emi Martinez doesn’t believe in the law of averages.

Argentina are about to be eacquainted with an old friend: the penalty competition. The substitute Kevin Rodriguez’s superb injury-time header gave Ecuador a fully deserved draw. There’s no extra-time until the final so this goes straight to penalties.

90+7 min: Chance for Ecuador! Jordy Caicedo heads wide from six yards after fine play from Minta on the left. That was a terrific chance to put the holders out!

90+6 min Almost another chance for Ecuador! Mena breaks into the area before running out of room.

Meanwhile, Gonzalo Montiel has replaced Molina with penalties in mind.

90+5 min “No, there’s no problem with VAR in football,” says Robert Speed. “It all works great!”

The goal stands! It must have been a check for offside, though it didn’t look even close on the replay.

I have no idea what they’re checking. It’s still going on though. This is weird.

There’s a VAR check, goodness knows what for though.

Oh. My. Goodness. Ecuador took a quick free-kick on the right, then Yeboah curled a fine cross into the middle. Rodriguez got across Otamendi at the near post, 12 yards out, and flicked a fantastic header that beat Martinez and bounced into the far corner.

Ecuador have equalised and this quarter-final is going to penalties!

90+1 min There will be five minutes of added time.

90 min Jordy Caicedo shoots indulgently wide from a very tight angle on the left side of the area. He had to cross that, surely.

88 min It feels like neither team has put five passes together in the last 15 or 20 minutes. I guess that constitutes good game management from Argentina, but it has been a strange spectacle.

87 min: Ecuador substitution Jordy Caicedo comes on for Alan Franco. It’s now or never for Ecuador.

86 min “I’m not sure why exactly,” begins Peter Oh, “but when Cristian Romero takes a full-throttle shot right in the family jewels and writhes on the ground in agony, I don’t feel as much sympathy for him as I do for other players.”

85 min It’s been a stop-start second half, which suits Argentina just fine. Result > performance.

83 min Romero stayed down after being hit by that shot from Mena. At first I thought he was wasting time, but the free-kick hit him in a delicate place.

82 min Mena’s free-kick hits the wall.