With his team in uncharacteristically strong first-round form, a couple of the favourites already gone and the generally unfancied Irish to come next Sunday, it's hard to imagine that Spanish coach Jose Camacho isn't beginning to believe that his nation's day on the world stage may finally have come.
After his side made sure of being Ireland's opponents on Sunday the Spanish coach insisted that it would be a tight game fought out with a "tough and combative side".
"We have to give Ireland a lot of respect," he said. "Nobody expected the Irish to get through to the second stage but they are here now and let's not forget that they eliminated Holland in the qualifying rounds.
"They are a very competitive team," he added, "tough but fair, who will cause us a lot of problems. We will have to play with a lot of pace because if we get into a physical battle we will not win. Despite that, though, we'll go into the game with a lot of confidence."
Certainly expectations in Spain will be growing and his journey home may be as uncomfortable as those of his French and Argentinian counterparts if the Spanish do not progress to the quarter-finals.
Their striker Raul later said that his side would have to "fight to win" against the Irish before insisting that nobody could stop the Spanish in their current form.
However, even after seeing Raul score two of his side's three goals in a fast moving and entertaining game in Daejeon yesterday Mick McCarthy is bound to feel that there will be opportunities in Suwon for his players to once again rattle a fancied side.
Raul's 53rd-minute winner, a close-range header, not only guaranteed the Spaniards top spot in Group B but with Paraguay coming from behind to beat Slovenia at Seogwipo it also spelt the end of another African side's World Cup. It was an outcome that seemed terribly hard on a team that contributed much to the game but ended up paying the price for a couple of goalkeeping howlers in the first half.
For all the glimpses shown by Spain during that first period of what they could do when going forward, South African coach Jomo Sono would surely have been baffled by his side trailing by two goals to one had it not been for the presence of Andre Arendse in the dressing-room providing a flesh and bone reminder of where his side had gone wrong.
For the best part of the game the Africans defended well despite finding themselves being repeatedly stretched by Spain's two wide midfielders, Joaquin and Gaizka Mendieta, both of whom were amongst those getting their first run out in these finals.
The pair were Spain's main creative force, particularly during an opening 15-minute spell which the Europeans dominated almost entirely.
Mendieta was the provider of the through ball from central midfield that allowed Raul to open the scoring just four minutes into the game.
Arendse, though, played a more prominent role in the goal than the Lazio midfielder with the 34-year-old fumbling hopelessly as he slid out to make what looked a straightforward interception and eventually allowing the striker to gain possession at the third attempt before tapping home.
The goalkeeper was no better for Spain's second which came shortly before half-time. Mendieta curled his free-kick from a couple of yards outside the box around the six-man wall but Arendse made no attempt to move and the ball sailed into the goal well inside his left-hand post.
Between the two gaffes, to be fair, he did make one quite superb stop, reacting with speed to push Fernando Morientes's close-range header wide after a neat piece of work by Joaquin. And there was another memorable save late on when the newly-arrived Albert Luque struck a low shot that Arendse got down to well. Still, there's little doubt that after watching a tape of the game the Irish strikers would have fancied a crack at the erratic Cape Town-based goalkeeper.
Having missed out on that opportunity they may just manage to get a little excited about the prospect of taking on the Spanish central defensive partnership of Nadal and Ivan Helguera, formidable enough on paper admittedly but on yesterday's evidence at least, no great shakes on grass.
A couple of McCarthy's men will remember Nadal from Ireland's qualifying campaign for USA '94 and particularly his visit to Lansdowne Road where he was quite brilliant as the organisational brains at the heart of the Spanish defence. These days the 35-year-old's brain is still, one presumes, working efficiently enough but his legs have slowed.
Even more noticeable than the Spanish central defensive pairing's occasional difficulty in coping with the pace of Benni McCarthy and Siyabonga Nomvethe was their remarkable inability to cope with a South African cross of any real quality.
By the time the Africans equalised for the first time on the half hour Nadal and his right-back Curro Torres had both been made to look very uncomfortable by a nicely-floated Sibusiso Zuma cross from the right. The two centre backs were particularly exposed by the failure to deal with the pass for the goal which Nomvethe headed into the six-yard box and McCarthy finished as the defenders, it seemed, stood everywhere and looked on.
As it turned out the goal mattered little for Raul struck again moments later.
Still, it is sure to have pleased McCarthy as his side resumes serious training at their new base in Seoul this morning.
SUBSTITUTES
Spain: Sergio for Albelda (52), Luque for Morientes (77), Luis Enrique for Raul (82). South Africa: Koumantarakis for Nomvethe (74), Molefe for Radebe (80), Lekgotho for Fortune (83).
YELLOW CARDS: South Africa: Nzama, Carnell, Nomvethe, Mokoena.
