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 on Thursday 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, but 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."

He added: "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."

It proved a sobering experience for Giovanni Trapattoni's men who, having lost 3-1 to Croatia in their first game, will line up against Italy on Monday night knowing they have nothing but pride for which to play.

Trapattoni said: "I have always had faith and confidence in our attitude. It has always got us good results.

"I will ask the lads how on earth it is possible, after two games, we have conceded two goals in the opening three or four minutes. Something has changed from our qualifying campaign. Fear and tension has meant that we have made mistakes we didn't make in the qualifiers. We can see the weight on the players' shoulders, but I haven't seen this in training and I am very sad about this."

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Torres not out for personal glory