Xavi and Iniesta getting high pass marks

European champions Spain’s return to the form in the 1-0 win over Portugal in their World Cup last 16 match showed that pass masters Xavi and Andres Iniesta were fully back in tandem.

And that is an ominous sign for not only Saturday’s quarter-final opponents Paraguay but for any of the other six World Cup contenders left in the competition.

The Barcelona duo – pocket battleships as they both only measure 1.70metres (5ft 5inches) – were at their mesmerising best against the Portuguese which delighted their former national coach Luis Aragones, who had predicted that the Portuguese would beat an off-colour Spanish side.

“We finally saw the Spain with its traditional passing game,” he said after the victory.

Indeed it was from a typically precise passing combination from Iniesta and Xavi that David Villa scored the decisive goal in the second-half.

It is just as well for the devilish duo that Villa is on form for they have had to overburden him with their passes given the poor form shown by his strike partner Fernando Torres.

For both of them it is a welcome high point after both endured injury affected season’s – Xavi, the player of the Euro 2008 triumph, suffering a calf injury while Iniesta found it hard to shrug off a right thigh injury which looked to still be affecting him in the early stages of the tournament.

However, a goal against Chile in the final group match, a 2-1 win, cheered Iniesta up no end and whilst people might have been sharpening the knives over a lowering of standards by the previously imperious Spanish, FIFA’s statistics suggest that it has not been because of a failure to convert their passes.

According to FIFA, Xavi has successfully found his target on 80 percent of the 368 passes he has delivered at the finals while Argentinian playmaker Lionel Messi has a success rate of 73 percent on his 267 passes and young German star Mesut Ozil a 71 percent conversion rate from his 179 passes.

For Aragones, though, it is Iniesta that is the symbol of the side and makes its heart beat.

“He (Iniesta) is exceptional and when one on one with an opponent he is extraordinary, and his final delivery exceptional,” said Aragones.

“Iniesta brings us so many things. He is the player who brings the most to the Spanish side.”