Germany striker Miroslav Klose is more interested in winning the World Cup than smashing Ronaldo's record for goals in it.

Klose's second-half brace helped complete a staggering 4-0 quarter-final win over Argentina in Cape Town today.

It also allowed the 32-year-old to muscle into contention for the Golden Goal by taking him onto four, and sees him join legendary Germany striker Gerd Muller on 14 in World Cup tournaments.

With two matches to play, including either the final or third-place play-off, Klose needs just a single goal to match Ronaldo, who took his tally to 15 when Brazil defeated Ghana four years ago.

But such individual accolades mean little to the Bayern Munich man, who continues to put the team first.

"I don't know whether I am going to pass Ronaldo's record, and I don't really care," he said.

"I didn't think about the record beforehand. I just wanted to win the game.

"I am more interested in what we do as a team. If we end this tournament winning the World Cup that would be far more important than any goals I score."

Germany's latest effort was perhaps even better than their 4-1 defeat of England in Bloemfontein last Sunday.

Had Frank Lampard's shot been spotted bouncing over the line, England would have been level before half-time and their opponents might have been rocking.

There were no such scares here once Germany had survived a late first-half flurry after Thomas Muller had put them ahead after only three minutes.

"Argentina are a good side but we played as a team today," crowed Klose.

"We were excellent.

"Now we have two games left. If we win them both we will be world champions."

The one German disappointment was the booking Muller collected for deliberate handball, which will rule him out of Wednesday's semi-final in Durban.

"It is not fair," said skipper Philipp Lahm.

"Angel Di Maria handled the ball as well but he didn't get booked. It is a big shame for Thomas because he has done so well."

Just like England, Argentina must now go away to lick their wounds, aware they have been comprehensively outclassed in front of a worldwide audience by a team they lost to on penalties at the same stage of the tournament four years ago.

"Germany were a lot better than we were," admitted Carlos Tevez.

"We ended up chasing the game and they were waiting for us, which is what they are good at.

"They are an excellent counter-attacking team and in the end they have beaten us by a big score.

"I suppose you could argue that Germany didn't have the ball as much as we did but when you play like that, it doesn't matter.

"They had all the clear opportunities and they were the ones who scored all the goals.

"This defeat hurts. It hurts a lot more than last time because then it was penalties. This time we have conceded four goals.

"What can you say? We got what we deserved."