Otto Rehhagel’s Greece have bowed out of the 2010 World Cup despite a dogged performance against Argentina, eventually succumbing 2-0 to the South Americans in Polokwane on Tuesday night.

Greece’s defeat, coupled with South Korea’s 2-2 draw with Nigeria meant that Argentina topped the group with nine points and the Koreans finished second with four points, one ahead of Greece. Nigeria ended their Group B campaign on one point.

Despite their defeat, Greece certainly managed to overturn the negative impression they made after their opening round loss to South Korea. They contained Argentina and Lionel Messi for the best part of 80 minutes and even managed to threaten their opponent’s goal a couple of times.

Diego Maradona made seven changes for the game but Argentina, captained by Messi, still presented a formidable challenge.

Otto Rehhagel opted for a defensive formation and assigned Sokratis Papastathopoulos, one of four central defenders, to man mark Messi.

The German’s plan seemed to work a treat in the first-half as Greece contained Argentina, largely restricting Maradona’s men to link-up play and shots from the edge of the area, which Alexis Tzorvas was equal to.

However, the first blow to Greece came when captain Giorgos Karagounis was unable to come out for the second half. Panathinaikos defender Nikos Spyropoulos came on in his place.

Kostas Katsouranis took over the armband and played a wonderful ball in the 49th minute to release lone striker Giorgos Samaras. The Celtic man managed to force his way past two defenders but curled his shot past the far post. It was Greece’s best chance of the match.

Just a couple of minutes later, Katsouranis also had to come off. Torosidis, who was a doubt before the game, was also suffering and Rehhagel brought both of them off, replacing them with Sotiris Ninis and Christos Patsatzoglou.

Sotiris Kyrgiakos became Greece’s third captain on the night but by that time, the loss of three key players was beginning to take its toll on the team’s cohesion and belief.

Nevertheless, Greece continued to hold Argentina off until the 78th minute when Martin Demichelis’s header from a corner rebounded off Diego Milito and the Bayern Munich defender smashed the ball into the net from close range. Tzorvas had no chance. Replays showed that Demichelis had fouled his marker, Avraam Papadopoulos, before winning the header.

Argentina’s second arrived in similar fashion in the 89th minute. Shortly after hitting the post, Messi weaved his way through the Greek defence and unleashed another thunderbolt, which Tzorvas parried only as far as substitute Martin Palermo, who tucked away the chance.

The scoreline was probably a fair reflection of the game but the Greek players clearly felt that they had given all that they could on the night.

“We played well against a good side,” said Papastathopoulos who refused to take credit for denying Messi space. “We gave 200 percent but they were better than us.”

Rehhagel admitted that it was a tall order to expect his side to beat Argentina. “Everything had to fall in place today – we had to make it through without injuries and to take the few chances we had.”

The German, whose contract with Greece is up, refused to be drawn on his future. “I will speak to the players and to the federation president and then we’ll see.”

One member of the Greek squad that will be leaving is Rehhagel’s assistant Yiannis Topalidis, who confirmed that even if his German mentor stays on, he would not sit on the Greek bench again. “I’m very happy to have been involved at such a high level for nine years,” he said.

Nevertheless, a nagging doubt will remain with the members of the Greek squad that their opening round defeat against South Korea, which was accompanied by a below par performance was where their World Cup campaign fell down.

“Had we got a result against South Korea, things might have been different,” said defender Vangelis Moras.