Grey mountains sprinkled with late melting snow, dull blankets of cloud, thunder, lightning, persistent heavy rain: Innsbruck in spring is no place for a fiesta. Yet the Iberian party continued long into the night after a victory that established Spain, the great underachievers of European football, as serious contenders at this tournament.

A hat-trick from David Villa, the Valencia striker wanted by Chelsea, raised the bar for individual performance at Euro 2008 after Wesley Sneijder's outstanding turn for Holland against Italy on Monday, and Spain responded with gusto to the gauntlet thrown down by the men in orange. True, beating an inconsistent Russia team, who qualified only by virtue of England's incompetence under Steve McClaren, could not be compared to the humbling of the world champions in Berne, but for a country that had not won a match at this level of the competition by more than one goal, this was greeted by outbreaks of spontaneous dancing, drumming, trumpeting, singing, bouncing and an attempted conga.

“Whatever happens, happens - Spain for ever” is the fatalistic slogan on the team bus that transports Luis Aragonés's players around Austria. Increasingly, what is happening here, though, is that Spain are thinking and looking like potential winners. It was not that Russia were bad - indeed, in the first half their passing and movement were excellent and they were unlucky not to score twice - more that they were poor in the areas where Spain are strongest: slow at the back, making them spectacularly vulnerable to Spain's quickness of thought moving the ball through midfield.

The pace and understanding of Spain's forwards were defining factors, too. Villa was the hero, but Fernando Torres was an outstanding foil, unselfish in the way he set up the first goal, after which Spain did not look back.

It came in the twentieth minute, from a long pass for which Torres battled with Denis Kolodin, the Russia centre half, who was flustered by the striker's strength and was eventually turned. Torres then drew Igor Akinfeev, the goalkeeper, whose approach was rendered redundant by a square pass, allowing Villa to shoot into an empty net. It was a wonderful vignette of two forwards working in harmony and, until Torres was replaced in the 54th minute, they made Russia's lives a misery.

The second goal, a minute before half-time, showcased the problems caused by Spain's front line. Andrés Iniesta carried the ball high up the field and, with Torres's decoy work taking players into dead areas, the gap was created for Villa to run late on to a sublime through-pass, his shot going through the legs of Akinfeev in front of the wildly appreciative Spain fans.

“I dedicate my goals to Fernando,” Villa said. “He prepared them for me with his passes and the way he makes space. I scored because of him.”

If the match still had life after the restart, it was because Russia had done enough to show they were capable of danger on the counter-attack. Igor Semshov should have achieved more from a cross by Dmitri Sychev in the eighteenth minute and five minutes - and one goal for Spain - later, Konstantin Zyrianov hit a post after everyone had missed another pass from Sychev.

Guus Hiddink's second-half change failed to work, however, and Vladimir Bystrov, a substitute, was so disappointing on the flank that a thunder-faced Hiddink replaced him after only 25 minutes of action, with not so much as a glance. By then Spain were coasting and in the 75th minute Villa completed the first hat-trick of the competition when he met a delightful pass from Santi Cazorla, another substitute, and cut inside Roman Shirokov to finish.

Another Roman - Abramovich, the Russian who owns Chelsea - was present, having arrived by helicopter, and the sight of Villa in this form will only harden his resolve to acquire the striker as Didier Drogba's replacement this summer (and perhaps harden Valencia's resolve to hold out for a king's ransom when the first bid arrives).

After Roman Pavlyuchenko had beaten Iker Casillas in the Spain goal with a header from an 86th-minute corner, the correct margin was restored to the scoreline when Cesc Fàbregas, the Arsenal midfield player, headed home in stoppage time. It says something for English parochialism that Aragonés's decision to omit Fàbregas from his starting line-up was seen by some as the actions of a madman. It did not occur that he might have a midfield formation every bit as potent without him.

As it was, Fàbregas was given about 40 minutes to feel his way into the tournament - Aragonés apparently believes that the Barclays Premier League season has taken too much out of him and thinks that Fàbregas's stamina levels are problematic - and crowned a tidy, if unexceptional display with strong running to score Spain's fourth, although a bitter Hiddink compared Russia's defending to that of a school team.

Villa took the ball upfield, hitting a nice lob that Xavi Hernández struck on the volley, forcing a save from Akinfeev, who did not deserve to see Fàbregas nod the loose ball into a net unguarded by slow-witted defenders.

However, Spain got everything their performance deserved and probably what their football has deserved for many years. Maybe this time they will have the confidence to take the prize.

Spain (4-2-3-1): I Casillas - Sergio Ramos, C Puyol, CMarchena, J Capdevila - M Senna, Xavi Hernández - A Iniesta (sub: S Cazorla, 63min), DVilla, DSilva (X Alonso, 78) - F Torres (sub: FFàbregas, 54). Substitutes not used: A Palop, JMReina, RAlbiol, FNavarro, Sergio García, DGüiza, ÁArbeloa, Juanito, R de la Red.

Russia (4-1-4-1): I Akinfeev - A Anyukov, RShirokov, D Kolodin, Y Zhirkov - S Semak; DSychev (sub: V Bystrov, 46; sub: R Adamov, 71), KZyryanov, I Semshov (sub: D Torbinski, 58), DBilyaletdinov - R Pavlyuchenko. Substitutes not used: V Gabulov, V Malafeev, V Berezutski, RYanbaev, S Ignashevich, A Berezutski, I Saenko, OIvanov.

Referee: K Plautz (Austria).