in my own experience, it depends.
some can and some cannot.

i personally like to become friends with the opposite sex. Its a different perspective, different view, different world.
so i have a few. some of them when become close friends started to have feelings for me and gets weird, some can maintain close friends.

so it depends. for me, those i choose to be my close friends are the ones that im not attracted to, so i already set in my mind to be actual friends.
if im interested romantically, i wont approach the girl as a "friend".
The girl would know that im interested romantically and starting as "friends" not as actual friends.