Portugal wouldn't particularly trouble Argentina. FF's lack of pace or not. Unlike say Germany where you have to deal with Reus, Özil, Götze, Müller all running at you on the break from all over the place, Portugal only have the predictable Ronaldo route. Zabaleta and Mascherano would easily do the job on him. Even Sweden contained him well enough for most of the tie until they had to open up and chase the game and Sweden are a second rate team. Messi, Di Maria, Higuain and Agüero running at Pepe and Bruno Alves with the likes of Meireles "protecting" them in midfield should be much more interesting to watch.
Argentina's defensive frailities are a bit overblown. They haven't really leaked goals throughout their qualifiers. The South American qualifiers are already a good measurement with quality teams like Chile and Uruguay, tough places like Bolivia and without shit on a stick teams like Luxembourg, Northern Ireland, Azerbaidjan or San Marino.
Under Maradona's and Batista's reign it was more a question of overall organisation, workrate, collective pressing. When you work hard collectively you can make up for shit defenders at the back. Barca are doing this all the time. lol
