It had been expected to be a close affair but in the end, Joachim Loew ran out the clear victor over sullen Diego Maradona as goals by Thomas Muller, Miroslav Klose and Arne Freidrich sent Germany to the semi-finals.
Maradona had promised to run naked on the streets of Buenos Aires, but that prospect was in doubt as early as the second minute when Muller reacted first to meet Bastian Schweinsteiger’s free kick.
Germany extended their lead on 68 minutes when Klose, who has now gone top of the scorers’ chart with five goals then popped up to meet Lukas Podolki’s pass after Bayern Munich youngster, Muller, initiated the move on the left flank.
The German machine was by now full steam and it was a matter of minutes before they came back for the third bite of the cherry.
Schweinsteiger, who was impressive all Saturday afternoon took a short corner and when he was given back the ball, he danced through the defence before setting up Friedrich to tap home five minutes later.
At this point, Argentina were in a quandary and despite Maradona’s efforts to resuscitate his stalling machine that included World Player of the Year, Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain, little came of it as they constantly ran into a rigid German defence.
Loew’s men completed another attacking move on 88 minutes, Klose again the scorer when Mesut Ozil clipped a delightful ball onto his path for another simplest of finishes.
The goal took Klose level with countryman Gerd Muller on 15 World Cup goals and one behind Ronaldo of Brazil.
Germany’s defeat of Argentina could not have come as a perfect chance for Schweinsteiger who had earlier been involved in a war of words with Maradona when he accused the South Americans of being bad losers.
The win also demonstrated Germany’s threat as a genuine contender for the World Cup trophy having taken apart an Argentine side that had brushed all and sundry in the group stages and disposing of Mexico in the second round.
Argentina was one of the favourites to win the title but the manner with which Germany blunted them, with shell-shocked Messi leading vanquished troops out of Green Point Stadium will spark a war that could drive Maradona out of the hot seat.