I think it was a poor strategy because it didn't work. They only started doing well when Torres was taken off, the other dude (Llorente?) replaced him and joined Villa as a striker pairing. Suddenly, Villa had strike after strike on target or close to it. The game opened up alarmingly. They have Silva, why would they need Villa on the left? They could have started Villa up front and put Silva on the left and left out Torres altogether. Villa is arguably the best striker in the world - why you would want to leave your most in-form star striker on the wing is beyond me, and while that system was in place, it didn't work. He can't cross for crap anyway, so stretching the defence meant little because it didn't open the game up for Spain, it merely meant that Portugal's defence was still unpenetratable and they had a quality striker with a poor cross on the win and an out of form striker leading the line. The mind boggles. Spain won Euro 2008 when Villa lead the line, and he did it well. You shouldn't need to stretch the defence with a guy like him on form - he'll do all the work himself (as he showed late in the second half).