Javier Mascherano was bloodied but not beaten, the last to depart the stadium in St Petersburg where outside it would soon be getting light, a plaster over the cut on the side of his head. “You have to know how to suffer,” he said. He had suffered, all right; they all had.

Lionel Messi admitted he had never experienced anything like it – for the moment, what was at stake, everything Argentina had been through since the disastrous defeat by Croatia, the dramatic days they had lived. Asked if he had ever suffered so much, Jorge Sampaoli, the manager, simply said: “No.” But at the end Marcos Rojo appeared and scored the goal against Nigeria that took them through. “As if it was written,” in Gonzalo Higuaín’s words.

“Unique,” Cristian Pavón, who is playing in his first World Cup, said. “The majority were crying and the release was enormous after a week when no one was enjoying being there.” Argentina had been on the edge but had found a way to pull back.

“It was win or die,” Higuaín said. “When Nigeria got the penalty it made the game very uncomfortable for us. We wouldn’t have deserved to get knocked out but the anxiety came. All those images, all those feelings come to mind, but what is important is the team overcame that anxiety. I’m pleased for Marcos: he deserves it too after the injury he had. It was a great goal. To score was a huge relief. It was win or win, there was nothing else. When the referee blew, an immense happiness went through my body: for our families, for all the people who have suffered at our side, for us here giving everything. The release was huge.”

For Mascherano, especially. At 34, and six months after his departure from Spanish football to China, this had looked a tournament too far, retirement calling him. It will be his last, just as it may well be Messi’s. It could have ended prematurely and the finger of blame would have been pointing his way. The former Barcelona midfielder committed the unwise foul from which Nigeria scored a penalty that looked set to send them through and Argentina out. All that off the back of difficult days in which he was accused not just of poor performances but of wielding undue power, his place in the team secured by who he was rather than by how he plays.

“I didn’t produce my best game but I also know I gave everything I have,” Mascherano said. “If we had been knocked out it would have been the worst possible way for this generation to come to a close. I think it would have been undeserved but sometimes this sport isn’t about what’s deserved and it can happen.

“We were so close to going out, and I would have been one of those singled out for the defeat, because of the penalty they gave against me and because I am one of the big names in the squad, one of the eldest. That’s the way it is. If you want to eat the peach you’ve got to put up with the fluff. You have to know how to suffer, how to go through the bad times and the good times and live every moment intensely.

“Rather than looking at the criticism, I think of the kit man who came to embrace me at the end of the game and the coaching staff too. I have been here for 19 years and they all know who I am. I couldn’t let those people down. It was hard. We’d been through a very difficult time, Croatia was a huge blow and we didn’t come into the match against Nigeria with good feelings. We wanted to prove we had personality and we showed that. We saw men fighting against adversity. The spirit appeared. It’s an important step … but it’s nothing yet.”

Finishing second means Argentina must play France; it also puts them into the half of the draw occupied by Brazil, Uruguay and Portugal. “France are a great team, candidates for the World Cup; we’re here to fight,” Mascherano said. “We didn’t play well in the first phase. We hope this can be an ‘injection’ emotionally and in footballing terms but it’s not a good idea to learn from miracles or heroism. We have to be a balanced, competitive team. We’ll try to compete and keep advancing.”

Higuaín described the tie as “extremely hard” but Argentina had been through worse. “What’s important now is to clear our heads, relax, and prepare for the game as best we can because we have suffered a lot.”