Raulzinho Neto had a game-high 21 points as Brazil avenged their defeat four years ago by Argentina and progressed to the quarter-finals of the basketball World Cup with an 85-65 victory.

Argentina’s golden generation are coming to the end of the road and while they took the first quarter in Madrid, with a lead of eight points, it was downhill from there against Brazil who are fancied for a podium finish at the tournament in Spain.

Luis Scola led Argentina to victory over Brazil in the Last 16 of the 2010 World Championships in Turkey and they had come out on top the previous four times they met but with Brazil’s imposing frontcourt they were able to hurt the undersized Argentine squad.

“It was a very difficult game which we expected but it worked out well for us. We now have a lot of hope but also know there is a lot of work to do,” Neto said.

Tomorrow, Brazil face Serbia, who struggled in the group stages but against rivals Greece they produced their best performance of the tournament after nailing nine-three pointers to win 90-72.

Greece had won all five group stage games while Serbia squeezed into the knockout stage with a 2-3 record but having endured strong criticism from the pundits, the Serbs hit top gear at crunch time.

An Emir Preldzic-inspired Turkey scraped past Australia 65-64 and today they face Lithuania in the next round who survived a spirited comeback from New Zea-land to run out 76-71 winners.

It was only in the fourth quarter that Turkey found their rhythm and they began to seriously cut back Australia’s lead.

With just over a minute left Turkey trailed 64-59 but then Fe-nerbahce forward Preldzic notched up a three-pointer and with just five seconds left he buried another to close out the match.

“I hope I can do this on every birthday,” Preldzic, 27 last week, said. “There is nothing better than delivering when the team needs you.”

Quarter-finals
Playing today: Lithuania vs Turkey; United States vs Slovenia.
Tomorrow: Serbia vs Brazil; Spain vs France.