"It's clear that if the aim of today's game is to decide which of the two teams was best, the final position obtained was contradictory to what each of the teams did," Bielsa said in his inimitable style.

"This pre-supposes not taking anything away from the opposition."

Argentina lost 4-2 in the shootout after conceding an equaliser with the last kick of the game in a 2-2 draw with arch-rivals Brazil.

Bielsa's team dominated the match but allowed their opponents to equalise with the last kick of the game.

"Some teams turn around the scoreline deservedly and others do it casually. One of these two happened today," Bielsa said.

"What should we have done to not deserve what happened today? When I was talking to the players after the game, we asked ourselves what we should have done and not have done (when it was 2-1).

"In the end, we convinced ourselves that there was no path to follow which we had failed to follow."

Bielsa brought on defender Facundo Quiroga for striker Carlos Tevez in the 89th minute and gave an even longer-winded explanation when asked if the substitution was responsible for Brazil's equaliser.

"A substitution of this nature is made firstly to take up time and the position of the player who came on is the same as the place where the rebound happened," he said.

"But if I hadn't made the change and they had scored a goal, then it would have been my fault for not making the change."