Spain's hopes of lifting their first World Cup and adding it to their European crown has gained all round approval from the previously sceptical Spanish media following the 1-0 win over Iberian rivals Portugal in their Last 16 match on Tuesday.

"Spain begins to dream" was the headline in El Pais, while ABC said that the "dream stays alive."

Spain's goalscorer David Villa, who took his tally to a joint top mark of four in the finals and edged him ever closer to all-time Spanish marksman Raul as his total went to 42 just two shy of the Real Madrid icon, received special praise.

"Villa relaunches Spain's dream," was the headline in El Mundo, beside a photograph of the Barcelona striker at the moment of the goal.

"Villa, like few people in front of goal, is a goldmine, or even better, an oilfield on his own," commented El Pais.

ABC speaks of "Villa the matador".

"There is my Spain," enthused sport daily Marca, for whom Villa produced a "performance that was out of this world," before more soberly recalling: "there we go, we are in the quarter-finals, but be careful, we have won nothing yet."

Marca said that Spain had performed with "a game full of subtlety" and assessed that Spain "has finally gone back to its origins, with overall a superb performance."

For the other sports daily AS, the "champions are back" and that the European champions behaved like real "Bullfighters" in beating Portugal.

There is not such good news for out of form Spanish striker Fernando Torres as the player who replaced him during the second-half when it was still 0-0, Athletic Bilbao forward Fernando Llorente, was praised all round for changing the nature of the match.

He went close to opening the score shortly after coming on in the 59th minute and Villa broke the deadlock four minutes later.

"After an hour of a pretty poor match, played badly by both sides, Llorente, who did not appear to have a role at this World Cup, inspired an extraordinary transformation", commented El Pais.

"Perfection arrived with the replacement of Torres by Llorente", opined AS.