LIVERPOOL striker Fernando Torres admits that Spain are ‘back to square one’ after their shock defeat to the USA but has vowed to start another historic unbeaten run.

Torres and his international team-mates had equalled Brazil’s world record of going 35 games unbeaten but despite Spain’s Confederations Cup hopes being dashed, the Anfield favourite is looking to build up a new sequence.

He said: “What hurts most is going out in the semi-finals of a big competition, not the end of the run.

“We knew that we couldn’t possibly win every single game from now to the end of our careers and that the run would have to come to an end some day.

“We just didn’t expect it to be here in South Africa, but that’s the way it is. These things happen when you least expect them.”

Torres will be returning to South Africa next summer with Spain for the World Cup and is already looking forward to better fortune then.

He said: “When you lose a game and you’ve got a lot of players who can barely remember the last time it happened, then it shows that you’re on the right track. In fact, I’d rather this happen now than at the 2010 World Cup.

“We have to go back to square one now and start putting some more wins together.

“I’d love us to go another 35 matches without losing. That would be great, especially with a World Cup in the middle.

“I don’t think anyone can say we ever showed a lack of respect to our opponents in that time.

“USA were the better side because they coped with the pressure we put on them and scored the goals.”

Spain will be back in action this weekend for the third place play-off and when asked if he was glad to be relieved of the pressure their lengthy run had brought, Torres declared: “Absolutely not. I wanted us to win even more games. We didn’t feel any extra pressure just because we were winning game after game. Something like that can only give you confidence.

“At the end of the day the USA took their chances up front, kept it tight at the back and deserved to win. You’ve got to congratulate them on that.”

“The most important thing now is that we keep on showing the same down-to-earth approach as we did when we went all that time unbeaten.”