Spain's La Furia Roja have emphatically beaten Ukraine 4-0 in their Group H encounter in Leipzig on Wednesday.

Goals from Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres and David Villa with two goals, one from the penalty-spothave given Spain's La Furia Roja an exceptional win against the World Cup debutantes, who were down to 10-men for the entire second-half.

Both teams started brightly, but with Spain managing to have the slight advantage in attack.

Ukraine had a free-kick in the 5th minute but Volodymyr Yezerskiy, arching backwards at the back post, headed Ruslan Rotan's free-kick over the bar.

Andriy Shevchenko broke through on goal early on but the linesman flagged him offside, when the Ukraine captain was blatantly onside.

Liverpool's Luis Garcia was linking well with Valencia's David Villa throughout the first-half and it was Garcia who opened the scoring in the 12th minute.

Garcia was awarded the goal - even though replays have shown that it was his Liverpool team-mate Xabi Alonso who got the final touch - from a corner in the 14th minute to give Spain the lead.

Just three minutes later, Valencia's David Villa scored a second for La Furia Roja, with his free-kick from 22-yards out being deflected off the head of one of the defenders in the wall, Anatoliy Tymoschuk, and past the Ukrainian keeper Oleksandr Shovkovskyi who was diving to his right.

Spain were really in the ascendancy now, with a peppering of shots on goal, and averaging four shots to every Ukraine attempt on goal.

Ukraine managed to muster a couple of attacks themselves as the half wore on, with Shevchenko playing a neat pass through to Andriy Voronin, but again Ukraine were on the wrong end of a poor offside call by the linesman.

David Villa had a last first-half chance for Spain, with a shot at the near-post, but was stifled by a defender and the keeper Shovkovskyi saved.

Spain went into half-time thoroughly deserving their lead, with Ukraine wondering how they could find a way through the solid Spanish defence.

David Villa made it 3-0 from the penalty-spot - the first penalty of the tournament thus far - in the opening minutes of the second-half, after one of the most controversial moments of the World Cup so far.

Fernando Torres made a run through a gap in the Ukraine defence, being closely marshalled by defender Vladyslav Vashchuk, who was adjudged to have been grabbing at the shorts of Torres, and was shown a straight red-card, and to compound things for the Ukranian’s, awarded a penalty.

Villa took the spot-kick, which Shovkovskyi managed to get a hand to, but the shot was too strong and went in past to give the Spanish an insurmountable lead.

The ball was in the back of the Ukraine net again in the 64th minute, but Marcos Senna's sensational driven effort from a half-cleared corner didn't count after Sergio Ramos fouled Volodymyr Yesercky while jumping for the ball in the area.

Serghiy Rebrov wasted a decent chance to pull a goal back in the 72nd minute with his rushed shot flying high of the bar.

Shevchenko was having a poor match, made worse by the lack of support from the midfield and played a lonely role up-front.

Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas came on in the 77th minute, making him the youngest ever Spaniard to take part in the World Cup Finals, and Spain pushed for another goal.

Carlos Puyol picked up the ball in midfield, making a mazy run through the Ukraine defence, had a lovely interlinking pass with Torres, and then the Barcelona captain perfectly teed the ball the ball up again with his head, into the path of Torres who smashed the ball past Shovkovskyi to make it 4-0.

Ukraine had a last minute flurry, but it was too little too late for the Eastern European's.

Torres, Garcia and Villa all had excellent games for Spain, with Torres - who has reportedly secured a deal with Manchester United, with personal terms having reportedly been agreed - scored arguably the goal of the tournament so far.

Spain head coach Luis Aragones will be overjoyed with his teams performance, and the team will rightly think they can go a long way this tournament.

Ukraine will have time to lick their wounds, and now know that anything less than wins against Saudi Arabia and Tunisia could see them failing at the group stage in their first-ever tournament.