The world champions were beaten for just the third time since 2006. They were two down inside the opening 14 minutes when Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuain, two players who ply their trade in Spain, were on target.

Carlos Tevez made it 3-0 in the 34th minute following a costly slip by Jose Reina.

Spain, who hit the woodwork three times in the match, pulled a late goal back through Fernando Llorente but Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero made it 4-1 for the home side in injury-time.

"We had an uncomfortable start to the match," Del Bosque said.

"We couldn't take control in the midfield, they flooded the midfield and stole the ball off us and hurt us.

"But we have the dignity to lose, the team never gave up and we had courage to keep going in search of goals.

"These defeats hurt of course, but we should learn from them. We can't believe that we will always win."

Spain travelled to South America on the back of their 4-0 Euro 2012 opener against minnows Liechtenstein and Del Bosque said it was a good test against a high-profile nation.

"We have to know how to play against weak teams, like Liechtenstein the other day, and big teams too. You learn from the defeats," he added.

"We haven't hurt our image. We had the dignity to lose.

"In the second half we had several chances. We were even close to closing the scoring.

"Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I think we had chances to change the final result."

I'm really happy for this win. We played against the world champions and we did a very good match. We suffered lots of bitter things this year, and it's really nice to fell our fans again and have this happy ending."

Messi was pleased to win: "We played really well in the first minutes.

"They move the ball from one side to the other, so you have to be very balanced and patient to find your chance. We did that and we were successful.

"We want the national team to do it well. Hopefully we'll continue in this path."