Spain 1:0 Portugal: match report

David Villa struck a blow for kaleidoscopic football against the suffocating tactics that have threatened to stifle this World Cup by edging Spain to victory against a negative Portugal in Cape Town.

While the stellar talents of Fernando Torres and Cristiano Ronaldo were once again dimmed, Villa moved level on four goals with Gonzalo Higuain and Robert Vittek in the race to claim the Golden Boot in this competition.

Portugal, reduced to 10 men with the 89th minute dismissal of Ricardo Costa for striking Joan Capdevila with his arm, placed all their hopes on the talents of Ronaldo, yet his anonymity was as stark as the brilliance of Villa, Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

Ronaldo’s frustration was borne out at the final whistle when he appeared to spit at a camera as he left the pitch.

This may have been the second anniversary of Spain’s Euro 2008 triumph against Germany in Vienna, but the marauding attacking machine that destroyed all in its path two years ago has only fired sporadically in South Africa.



The rapier passes of Xavi and Iniesta remain as incisive as ever, but without a fully-fit Torres to provide the cutting edge alongside Villa, the Barcelona playmakers have seen much of their work go to waste

Portugal, despite going into this fixture without having conceded a goal so far during the World Cup, certainly found it more difficult to contain Xavi and Iniesta than the attacking talents of Brazil, who failed to breach the Portuguese defences in Durban last Friday.

Three times inside the opening ten minutes, the Portugual back-line had been cut open by the brilliance of Xavi or Iniesta, but neither Torres nor Villa was able to take full advantage of their platinum service.

For that, Portugal owed a debt to their goalkeeper Eduardo, who repelled Spain’s forwards with three crucial saves.

The save from Torres, just 59 seconds into the game, was a spectacular full-length effort that kept the Liverpool striker’s curling shot out of the top corner.

Spain must have viewed the Braga goalkeeper as Portugal’s weak-link judging by the manner in which they peppered his goal and Villa’s two efforts were shots that were destined for the near post until Eduardo smothered them both.

While Spain passed through Portugal at will, with balls being threaded around full-backs and behind centre-halves, their Iberian neighbours relied on percentage balls to Ronaldo, few of which actually reached the Real Madrid forward.

Ronaldo, as is his way, was clearly desperate to claim centre-stage against the country which he now calls home.

But whether he played on the left or the right - and he switched between both flanks in an increasingly desperate attempt to influence the game - the game passed Ronaldo by.

It was left to Tiago and Fabio Coentrao to provide Portugal’s best first-half openings, all of which were wasted by the one-dimensional forward Hugo Almeida.

Spain controlled the second-half, however, and Fernando Llorente, a replacement for the struggling Torres, was denied an opener when Eduardo kept out his 61st minute diving header.

But the dam burst two minutes later. Iniesta’s pass was flicked on by Xavi and Villa, looking suspiciously offside, saw his first shot blocked by Eduardo before he ruthlessly converted the rebound.

Barcelona have just paid Valencia £34.5 million to take the forward to the Nou Camp. For less than half of Real’s investment in Ronaldo, Barca have bought themselves a goal machine.