SPAIN sealed their progress into the second round of the World Cup with three goals in the second-half to sweep aside Paraguay.

Second-half substitute Fernando Morientes scored two goals to put Spain ahead of Paraguay in their Group B game.

Morientes crashed home a header on 52 minutes to give Spain an equaliser and then he bundled home a teasing cross on 69 minutes to put Spain ahead.

And with eight minutes to go Hiero slammed home a penalty to send the highly fancied Spanish into the second round.

A close first-half of few chances saw Paraguay take a shock lead following an own goal by defender Carlos Puyol.

A speculative shot was saved by the Spanish keeper Casillas only to rebound off the legs of Puyol and into the goal.

The star-studded Spanish side of Luis Eneique and Raul had not been able to get through a tight Paraguay defence.

Full-time: Paraguay...1 Spain...3

Teams:

Spain: Casillas, Puyol, Nadal, Hierro, Juanfran, Baraja, Luis Enrique, Valeron, De Pedro, Tristan, Raul. Subs: Albelda, Contreras, Curro Torres, Helguera, Joaquin, Luque, Mendieta, Morientes, Ricardo, Romero, Sergio, Xavi.

Paraguay: Chilavert, Arce, Gamarra, Ayala, Caceres, Caniza, Paredes, Gavilan, Acuna, Cardozo, Santa Cruz. Subs: Alvarenga, Baez, Bonet, Campos, Cuevas, Franco, Morinigo, Sanabria, Sarabia, Struway, Tavarelli, Villar.

Referee: G Ghandour (Egypt)