Cambiasso spot on as Argies advance
Argentina's Javier Saviola and Mexico's Rafael Marquez were both sent-off in the dying seconds of an otherwise uneventful 90 minutes, before Carlos Salcido opened the scoring for Mexico after 104 minutes and Luciano Figueroa equalised six minutes later.
After 11 successful conversions from the spot in the resulting shoot-out, Argentina goalkeeper German Lux denied Ricardo Osorio, and Esteban Cambiasso calmly slotted away the following kick to give his country a 6-5 win on penalties.
Argentina coach Jose Pekerman was delighted that his team had fought back from a goal down to eventually claim the win.
"There is always a sense of drama when you play a semi-final," said Pekerman. "We have one day fewer than Brazil to recuperate for the final but we have a young team and I'm sure we'll be ready come Wednesday.
"It was not a good match, but we fought our way back. Now we look forward to playing Brazil again."
Argentina's Javier Zanetti, who was making his 100th appearance for his country, could not hide his relief after edging through to the final.
"It was a very difficult match ... and I thought we were fortunate to scrape through," he said.
"It will be great to play Brazil in the final, especially in Germany one year before the World Cup, and we hope we can beat them again."
After a turbulent few days, which saw defenders Aaron Galindo and Salvador Carmona kicked out of the squad, Mexico responded well by holding Argentina's talented strikeforce at bay for most of the contest.
Both sides had penalty appeals turned down in the closing stages of the first half, when Ramon Morales and Saviola both tumbled over in the penalty area.
Argentina nearly grabbed the lead seconds before the break though, following some nice work from Saviola, who created an opening for Gabriel Heinze in the danger zone. The Manchester United defender chipped the ball over Oswaldo Sanchez but Gonzalo Pineda cleared the ball off the line.
After the break, Luciano Figueroa headed over from close range, and Zinha hit the woodwork with a tremendous shot from distance.
Mexico goalkeeper Sanchez then produced an outstanding stop to keep out a powerful header from Fabricio Coloccini.
In the dying seconds of normal time, Argentina had Saviola sent off for kicking Pineda in an off-the-ball incident, but only moments later, Mexico were also reduced to 10 men as Marquez picked up his second yellow card for another rash challenge.
One minute before an unspectacular first period of extra-time drew to a close, defender Salicido broke down the left flank, raced past Heinze and fired home a deflected shot.
Figueroa netted the leveller when he acrobatically controlled a deflected shot with his heel, and squeezed a shot between Sanchez's legs to force the penalty shoot-out.
: Oswaldo Sanchez, Salcido, Rafael Marquez, Osorio, Pardo, Borgetti, Morales, Pineda, Mendez, Lozano, Naelson.
: Lux, Sorin, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Heinze, Riquelme, Saviola, Milito, Coloccini, Santana, Figueroa.
: Roberto Rosetti (Italy).
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