"It's a case of being big. We could sit and wait like many (teams) do, but it would be a lack of courage," Bielsa said.

"Because of our (football) history we accept that we are always obliged to win, we've never done anything other that seek the road to victory," he told a news conference.

Bielsa was speaking before his team travelled 200 kilometres north along Japan's Pacific coast to Miyagi where they must beat Sweden in their last group F match to progress to the second round.

He defended Argentina's tactics in the 1-0 defeat by England on Friday which left them one point behind the Swedes and English with one group game to go.

Argentina had 65 percent possession against England but struggled to break down their opponents' massed defence and succumbed to a David Beckham penalty just before halftime.

"Our actions were preceded by a developed build-up, those of our rivals by concessions we made with our errors," was the elaborate way in which Bielsa explained Argentina's superiority as a team over England.

"In football there are those low notes," he added, using a musical term to explain how England had snatched victory in Sapporo.

Bielsa said the match against England has resembled those home games in the South American qualifiers in which Argentina had dominated their opponents.

TERRITORIAL DOMINANCE

"It turned into a match like the South American qualifiers where we normally dominated 70 per cent of the match. It was the same as a 1-0 win over Bolivia at River (Plate stadium), the only difference was the result," Bielsa said.

He then hastened to add, without actually naming Beckham and his team mates in the England side, that "the players are not the same but the structure of the match is the same.

"We're used to the kind of matches we're playing here," he added, defending nearly four years' work that could come to nothing in premature elimination from a tournament Argentina were favoured to win.

Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0 in their opening group match nine days ago.

"In the second half we got behind the (England defence) five times with very clear goal chances," Bielsa said.

"But when the cross came, there were double the number of defenders," he added, pointing out that Argentina had been slow in their build-up, allowing England time to pull men back.

Bielsa suggested Sweden would play differently to England.

"Sweden have an attacking formation and they do a lot of running, they are sincere, hide nothing. I don't think they'll play for a draw," he said.