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Fernando Torres insists he will happily sit on the bench if it means Spain win Euro 2012.

The Chelsea striker dumped the Republic of Ireland out of the competition as he plundered a double in a 4-0 rout in Gdansk after being recalled to the starting line-up.

Torres was used only as a substitute in Sunday's night's opening 1-1 Group C draw with Italy with manager Vicente Del Bosque controversially opting not to play a single striker.

Torres responded in the best possible fashion, but was adamant he was not disappointed to be left out.

He said: "It was not a disappointment. I know all my team-mates we have here, we are all playing in the best team in the world - at least we won the World Cup and the Euros.

"Anyone can play, so it's not a disappointment to be on the bench with the kind of players in the team.

"We work in the training sessions to be in the starting XI, but if we can't we have to give some help to our team-mates who start and hope to have the chance to go on from the bench and do something good for the team.

"Against Italy, it was not a good result for us, but the performance was really good from everyone.

"I was lucky enough today to be selected for the first XI - two goals was nice - but if in the next game the manager decides to play without a striker that's fine.

"The main thing is for Spain to reach the final and win this title again."

Torres set Spain on their way within four minutes when he smashed the ball past Shay Given from close rage, and after David Silva had walked in a second four minutes after the break, added a second with the Irish defence in tatters.

Substitute Cesc Fabregas, the man who was asked to spearhead Del Bosque's inventive line-up against the Italians, added a fourth seven minutes from time to complete a comprehensive victory.

The Spain boss said: "I'm very happy because our objective was to win the match. That was the primary objective, but we also wanted to score more goals than Croatia [against Ireland], and we managed to do that.

"This is great for the morale of the team and for the optimism we all feel.

"We have got 23 players, great players, all of whom play at their clubs in each match.

"Fernando Torres is one alternative. We wanted to dominate on the pitch and we had 65 per cent possession of the ball. We also wanted to use his speed and he knows how to find space, he knows how to score, and he did that very well tonight.

"This was a perfect match. Everybody thought he could have played in the first match as well, but that's not the point."