Spain Vs Ukraine - World Cup Special

Perennial under achievers Spain faced a tough task on paper with old sparing partners from Kiev Shevchenko and Rebrov, however neither was able to get into a game marshaled by Puyol at the back and Alonso and Senna in midfield.

Spain began with golden boy Torres replacing Madrid legend Raul up front in a much changed line up from their quarter final exploits in 2002. The impressive trio of Garcia, Alonso and Senna looked to set up Villa and Athletic striker Torres in the early moments and some shaky moments from Shovkovskiy and Nesmachniy told the tale of the game to come.

Aside from the obvious striker partner ship the Ukraine boosted very few household names and looked to hold onto the ball early in the game in an attempt to stop Spain from making their player for player advantage count.

For all their efforts they failed to do any lasting damage to the Spanish game plan of making the game safe early and with early running from Villa at the heart of their defense they were soon under pressure and left with no response to the charge of the much fancied Europeans.

It was to Xabi Alonso that the first goal went and after having suffered a couple of scares with shots from Senna and Villa it was to be expected that their defense crumbled so early in the game. From a corner the Liverpool man made the Ukrainian's pay for sloppy marking and via his shoulder he found the back of the net.

The eastern side were put further into trouble minutes later when Villa doubled the Spanish lead with a deflected free kick deceiving the goalkeeper before find its way into the back of the net.

Shell shocked by the early goal Ukraine struggled to get out of their own half for long periods of time and can count themselves lucky that their sloppy defending was not punished further by a rampant Spain who certainly looked in the mood to put a marker down early in the group stages.

Most of the Ukrainian attacking threat naturally came from Chelsea man Shevchenko but they could do little with him up front on his own and great defending from Ramos and Puyol. In fact it took them nearly forty minutes to register a shot on goal and even then a weakly struck ball was not enough to force Casillas to sweat.

Making changes at the break in an attempt to bag an early goal, Ukraine efforts were helped little by the officious referring which awarded Spain and Villa a chance to put the game well beyond doubt. As a streaking Torres ran clean through once more he was tugged back by Vaschuk well outside the area but was dismissed for shirt pulling when the last man by the Swiss referee.

Villa slotted away the penalty for his second goal of the match and the Spanish victory was assured. Playing with ten men against a side on the up made the task even more difficult for the World Cup debutants however despite this they battled bravely on and created half chances through Voronin, who volleyed just wide, and Rebrov who sliced their best chance over the bar.

Spain however saved the best till last and was the impressive Torres who through excellent work from defense partner Puyol was allowed to put an exclamation mark on their first win of the competition. The Barcelona centre back tenacious as ever won the ball back, played a one two with Cesc in the Spanish midfield before cushioning a header to Torres who lashed the ball home from the edge of the area.

Just the victory that Spain needed to get their new campaign for a first World Cup underway as Ukraine go away hoping their can get back on track to make it to round two.