Villa's penalty gave the European and world champions a half-time advantage from the penalty spot in the Euro 2012 qualifier against Scotland at Hampden and Andres Iniesta doubled their lead just after the break.

Steven Naismith pulled one back for the hosts and then a Gerard Pique own goal looked to have set the Scots on course for a precious point before Fernando Llorente came off the bench to have the final say.

Ramos was thrilled for 28-year-old Villa, who he believes will go down as one of Spain's all-time greats.

"We can only congratulate him, because he has managed a significant figure," said the 24-year-old.

"Villa will be one of the top scorers in the history of our selection and my only wish is for him to remain on the roll for a long time."

He admitted, however, that Spain had lessons to learn despite the 3-2 victory which maintained their 100% Group I record.

"The team are able to appreciate this moment," Ramos said.

"There are cycles in matches and I do not know why, but the team gets lost at some points.

"Scotland had been pressing very high and managed to trouble us, and press our defensive lines, and were able to take advantage of that.

"We must learn from these moments, because you cannot always get the right results and that could complicate things."

Villa, who moved onto 43 international goals in last month's 4-0 win in Liechtenstein, is already looking ahead to passing Raul's milestone.

He said: "I'm happy because my goal helped us win. We knew for a long time that this goal would arrive.

"Now the 45 mark does not worry me because I will score many more."

Last night the match-winning responsibility fell to substitute Llorente, though, and the Athletic Bilbao frontman is hoping to continue in the same goalscoring vein.

He said: "I am delighted to help the team. The important thing is that we keep strong in qualifying, and see if we continue like this.

"I'm on a roll, really, but we must continue working to get more goals."