Spain

[England's No.1]

Martin Jol on Spain - "The best team so far"

I don't think anyone can disagree with the big man, but am interested in hearing everyone's view on the game.

I quite fancied the Ukraine and so am quite shocked to see how disappointing they were today. And I had been expecting Spain to underperform as usual, but maybe this time they are for real.

[Chinaman]

The Spaniards do look good today. If they don't shoot their own foot , they should go far. Perhaps the ineptness of Ukraine made them look better; and in particular the refereeing error in the send-off and penalty incident took the fight out of the Ukraine altogether.

[Houdini logic]

Spain looked awesome, i just watched the game at work on streaming!

[whistler9027]

To be fair Ukraine despite having some good players and the great sheva' up front were never gonna set this world cup alight..they are workmanlike at best....in a tournament over a few weeks you need a bit more creativity to go on and do well...If Spain get their heads right they have as a good a shout as any of the fancied teams..

Plus they do look like they've got goals in them...remember they had 3 goals disallowed in the 1/4 finals in 2002..which looked ok...

[DonJolSpurano]

Spain looked awesome, i just watched the game at work on streaming!

can i ask if you watched it on the bbc website?

there was an interesting article yesterday doing the rounds and i didnt realise this but if you watch any bbc website world cup live footage in work, your place of work needs to have a TV license or you're ****d!!!

[marcusto]

From what I saw and heard they started extremely well compared the other nations

I will always remeber joaquin crossing the ball to Morientes I think who headed it in the 1/4 Match in Extra Time Golden Goal against S Korea only for the Linesman to say the ball went over the line when it was about 1/2 foot still in play...

[Billywhizz]

Spain looked the dogs bolloxs and Torres was awsome.

[JJ]

It's about time Spain played some football. They've had the players to do fantastically for years but have always underachieved.

[hastingsyid]

spain did play very well must admit,everyones talking about england,brazil,argies,italy and holland but this spanish side could be a hard team to beat.torres was outstanding today and could run riot if not careful

[highlander]

they have hugely underachieved in the past but this time they have quality and a deep squad. however, and its an important however, they lack that world class player to win them games or turn things around and they dont have much pace at the back so will be very reliant on Iker Casillas, i still cant see them getting to far, quarters i think

[sundancer]

Spain have the best league in the world and they have been for several years now, they have several young good players in their squad and if Torres plays like he did today they could win it.

[Danishspurs]

Spain have the best league in the world and they have been for several years now, they have several young good players in their squad and if Torres plays like he did today they could win it.

The best league in the world is the Premiership.. They spaninsh league has some great teams in the top 8, but the weakest teams in the league, is not close to being as good as the weakest in the premiership...

[onthejazzin77]

torres has unfortunately priced spurs out of a move with that display. spain were excellent. ukraine is my sweepstake at work so i wasnt expecting much anyway. rebrov missed a sitter. i thought spain handled the heat well. i can see them making at least the quarters.

[Chinaman]

We wouldn't have been in any way as we've already bought Berbatov. It's good now that his value is raised as it will cost our opposition more to sign him.

[singapore spur]

yup very good , wether they can remain as good all tournament is another matter , though i think they are on a run of about 20 odds games unbeaten . saying that ukraine never got going and will intresting to see spain put under a bit of presssure . i think serbia bossed them in their meetings in the qualifiers .

[Chinaman]

The Spaniards are usually sly foulers. I'd like to see whether they can keep their cool against the east European bashers.

[Aussiespur]

Torres did look pretty good. Scored a cracking goal too .... sigh. If only ...