Torres confident Spain have found rhythm despite missed chances against Honduras

(GETTY IMAGES)

Fernando Torres is confident he can now fully contribute to Spain's World Cup cause and hopes his country can reap the benefits of his "perfect" understanding with David Villa.

The Liverpool forward played for 70 minutes in the 2-0 win over Honduras on Monday night as he continues his recovery from knee surgery. He found himself in goalscoring positions but perhaps lacked the killer instinct he has shown so often in the past for club and country, with strike partner Villa instead grabbing the headlines with two goals, a missed penalty and an unsavoury off-the-ball incident.

Torres said: "I played 70 minutes and the good news is I feel ready to last for 90 minutes for the first time since my recovery.

"Villa and I have said we understand each other perfectly and hopefully we can play together again, although we've always said that if we don't then it doesn't matter as long as the team works well."

The next test for Spain is a game against Group H leaders Chile, a match Torres is determined to win to avoid the top team from Group G – most likely to be Brazil.

New Barcelona recruit Villa set Spain on the path to victory with a superb individual effort and then added a second early in the second period to kill off Honduras and he insisted the team came into the match with no hangover from their opening defeat to Switzerland.

He said: "Our defeat against Switzerland was already water under the bridge, we talked about it and it's not logical to look back. We played in the same style as we played against Switzerland, we attacked and played short passes.

"This first group of games is very difficult, we still have a match to play against Chile. Being world champions is a long way down the road. Not just for any national squad, but in terms of time as well, there is a long time to go before the final and there are many matches to play before then. At the moment we are focused on Chile, beating them and moving on to the next round."

It remains to be seen whether Villa will be able to feature in that match though, as a retrospective sanction may be applied by Fifa after he lashed out at Honduras defender Emilio Izaguirre. Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura took no action at the time but it is not yet clear whether he saw the incident.