It’s the battle of the Iberian teams in Cape Town on Tuesday and it’s no surprise to see the Spanish as strong favourites to go marching into the last eight

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Spain made hard work of qualifying from Group H, although that initial defeat to Switzerland might be the best thing that happens to them during the 2010 World Cup.

It acted as a severe wake-up call to a brilliantly-talented team who may have otherwise assumed that the opposition would be continually bowled over by the pretty passing triangles which are the hallmark of the European champions’ play.

Instead, Vicente Del Bosque’s team have had to roll their sleeves up to land wins against Honduras and Chile to get themselves back on track and they are into 4/1 (bet365) to win their first ever World Cup. The bookies make them 11/10 favourites (Boylesports) to beat Portugal on Tuesday, with the winner of the match likely to face an easier quarter final opponent of either Paraguay or Japan.

The Portuguese certainly won’t have an underdog mentality for this clash at Greenpoint Stadium, with Carlos Queiroz’s team having comfortably held Brazil on Friday afternoon to book their place in the last sixteen. In the previous match, they had slotted seven goals past North Korea to demonstrate their prowess in front of goal and Paddy Power offer 10/3 that they are successful.

Although Cristiano Ronaldo (7/1 Coral) is one of the world’s best players and someone who tested the Brazilian defence to the limit, the real strength of this Portugal team is a defence which hasn’t yet conceded a goal in this World Cup.

Chelsea’s Ricardo Carvalho and Porto’s Bruno Alves ably protect Eduardo and it’s little wonder that Under 2.5 Goals is no bigger than 4/6 (William Hill).

Even so, Brazil were unadventurous during Friday’s match in Durban and Spain will pose a far more dangerous threat, especially one particular striker who looks sharp as a tack in front of goal. David Villa is worth the entrance fee alone and the Barcelona striker is an interesting proposition at 9/2 (Ladbrokes) to open the scoring for the third game running.

His goal against Chile was a perfect piece of opportunism and illustrates why the Spanish champions were prepared to shell out so much cash for him.