David Villa today backed strike partner Fernando Torres to find his World Cup goalscoring form as Spain look to book a place in the quarter-finals.

Vicente Del Bosque's men take on Portugal this evening in Cape Town and while Villa is one of the tournament's top scorers so far with three goals, Torres is yet to find the back of the net.

Villa, however, insists it's only a matter of time before Torres breaks his duck and believes the Liverpool striker will have a major influence on Spain's attempts to become world champions.

"Perhaps he hasn't scored a goal but he's done spectacular work," said Villa. "He really is very happy in the squad, he's made an enormous effort to help this team.

"He is supporting the team with his play, so I'm very thankful to him and I think his performances have been very good.

"He is doing some excellent work, but forwards are always measured by the goals they score and I'm totally convinced that if he continues working as well as he is, he will score goals."

He added: "He had that at the European Championship, he scored goals in the later stages although he hadn't scored many at the beginning.

"He's very happy, he's always with us and he's always going to be contributing very positively to the side."