Euro 2008 Group D: Spain 4 Russia 1

David Villa scored the first hat-trick of Euro 2008 as Spain lived up to their pre-tournament billing with a fine victory over Russia in Group D.

Russia started positively but were hit on the counter-attack, with Fernando Torres squaring for Villa to roll home. Konstantin Zyryanov saw a shot hit the post but then Villa prodded past Igor Akinfeyev to double the lead and after 74 minutes he drilled in a third. Roman Pavlyuchenko nodded a consolation before Cesc Fabregas headed a fourth.

Spain wasted a number of openings to win by an even bigger margin and the standard of their performance would suggest a place in the quarter-finals is well within reach. In Villa and Torres they appear to possess a forward partnership to match any at the tournament and the array of creative midfielders at Luis Aragones's disposal should ensure a regular supply line.

Russia's Guus Hiddink has advanced to the knockout rounds at every major international competition he has coached at but the Dutchman has a task on his hands just to patch up a porous defence, let alone progress to the last eight. Amid unrelenting rainfall in the mountainous city of Innsbruck, both sides struggled to keep hold of the ball early on. But that failed to dim the attacking ambitions of either set of players and a free-flowing first half ensued.

Torres and Villa looked in menacing form from the outset and inside 10 minutes the strikers each had a decent sight of goal but produced weak finishes. At the other end, Russia were working the channels well and Dmitry Sychev squared from the right for Igor Semshov to fire wide under a timely challenge from Villarreal's Joan Capdevila.