Villa netted twice in the opening 15 minutes to put Spain on their way to a comfortable win in Vaduz, but the Valencia striker missed the chance for his hat-trick after blazing a late penalty against the crossbar.

Cesc Fabregas, one of a host of changes to the Spain side that beat Latvia 2-0 at the weekend, created the first goal with a superb through-ball that bisected the two centre-backs and Villa finished it off by rounding Peter Jehle and slotting home.

Liechtenstein tried to respond with a decent 25-yard effort from Michele Polverino which Jose Reina needed two attempts to collect, before Villa made it 2-0 in the 14th minute with a brilliant strike.

Fabregas, Villa and David Silva were all involved in the build-up, which resulted in Silva chipping a pass across the area from the byline which Villa, who was standing some 16 yards from goal and looking in no position to shoot, somehow managed to divert into the bottom corner of the net with a spectacular overhead kick.

After that flying start there was only ever going to be one winner, and all that remained was to see how many goals Spain would get.

Andres Iniesta missed a sitter which would have made it 3-0 on the half-hour mark before Xabi Alonso was denied by a superb one-handed save by Jehle at the start of the second period.

Hosts Liechtenstein never gave up though and they almost pulled a goal back in the 61st minute when Franz Burgmeier's curling effort from the edge of the box clipped the top of the post with Reina well-beaten.

That was a rare chance for the home side though, and Spain had numerous chances to increase their advantage with Silva, Luis Garcia (2), Roberto Soldado (2) and Villa (2) all having decent attempts.

Villa had arguably the two best openings, but spurned them both.

The first saw him denied by Jehle after attempting to round the goalkeeper having broken clean through, and then in injury-time the livewire striker smashed a penalty against the woodwork after he had been brought down by Jehle.