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Torres on Song as Spain Demolish Ireland

14 June 2012 22:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Fernando Torres rediscovered his scoring touch in a Spain shirt in a 4-0 thrashing of Ireland that makes the Irish the first side to be knocked out of Euro 2012, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

After struggling to escape Italyâ€™s pressure in their tournament opener, Spain were able to unleash their passing game in a win that puts them on the brink of qualifying for the quarterfinals and leaves Giovanni Trappatoniâ€™s Ireland team with no such hope.

Spain held the ball for minutes at a time, underlined by the fact that Xabi Alonso completed more passes in the first half than the entire Ireland team.

Torres hit the opener on four minutes, his first competitive goal for Spain since September 2010.

The Chelsea striker picked up the loose ball as his strike partner David Silva was felled by Sean St. Ledger and worked his way into space before unleashing a powerful strike past Shay Given.

Silva doubled Spainâ€™s lead at the same point in the second half, picking up the ball on the rebound from a Torres shot, shifting left and right to find space and rolling the ball past three defenders and Given.

Torres grabbed his second after a perfectly-timed run behind the Spain defense on 70 minutes as he ran onto Silvaâ€™s pass.

In a sign of his growing confidence, Torres pulled off a stepover and paused slightly before slotting the ball past Given.

Cesc Fabregas replaced Torres on 74 minutes and made it four soon afterwards, darting wide to pick up the ball from Silvaâ€™s corner before jinking toward the touchline and lashing the ball past Given from a tight angle.