Torres had come close to opening the scoring moments before his goal when he headed against the crossbar but on 33 minutes he scored the most important international goal of his career. Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas played a fine through ball, Torres outpaced and outmuscled Philipp Lahm before dinking the ball over the outrushing Jens Lehmann and into the bottom corner of the net.
Xabi Alonso entered the fray after 64 minutes as a subsitute for Fabregas. Pepe Reina and Alvaro Arbeloa were unused subs.