Incendiary Spain bid farewell with a flourish

Spain 6-0 Poland
European champions Spain will head out to South Africa with real hopes of claiming the FIFA World Cup after putting six past Poland in a comprehensive friendly victory at Murcia's Estadio Nueva Condomina.

Vicente del Bosque fielded something like his strongest side from the start, though the fit-again Fernando Torres started on the bench, and were ahead on 12 minutes as David Villa stabbed home from close range after a great ball from his new team-mate at FC Barcelona, Andrés Iniesta. Two minutes later, the crowd were on their feet again as some fearsome interplay on the edge of the box culminated in Iniesta flicking the ball over the Poland defence to Xavi Hernández, who selflessly set up David Silva to score into an empty net.

Iniesta was withdrawn before the break with a thigh twinge, but Spain were to be even more domineering in his absence. It was 3-0 six minutes after the break, Xabi Alonso's effort deceiving Tomasz Kuszczak with the help of a deflection, and before the hour the Manchester United FC goalkeeper had been beaten again, this time by Cesc Fàbregas. After replacing Villa on 66 minutes, Torres was the next name on the scoresheet following an exchange of passes with Pedro Rodríguez, and the latter exploited some confusion in the Polish defence to make it 6-0 with nine minutes left.

Spain's Group H campaign kicks off against Switzerland in Durban on 16 June. They then take on Honduras and Chile.