Spain hat-trick hero David Villa paid tribute to strike partner Fernando Torres following Tuesday's 4-1 drubbing of Russia, even though the Liverpool man again failed to get on the scoresheet for his country.
Immediately after slotting the ball past Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev to complete his treble 15 minutes from time, Villa raced to the Spain bench to embrace Torres, who had been substituted after 54 minutes and replaced by Cesc Fabregas.
That was the third Spain match in just over a week where Torres has been taken off early, with coach Luis Aragones substituting the Liverpool striker at half-time in both friendly matches against the United States and Peru.
Torres has now failed to score in each of those three matches - albeit whilst not always at peak fitness - and although he has been prolific during his first season at Liverpool, he has notched just once for his country since 2006.
All that has led to speculation about the striker's ability to perform for Spain the way he does for Liverpool, but Villa was keen to show Torres he is fully behind the former Atletico Madrid man.
"The first two goals were with the help of Torres," said Villa.
"You saw what happened with the first one and with the second he opened the space so (Andres) Iniesta could make the pass to me," Villa added.
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