Spain’s striker Ferran Torres said destiny was written after he scored the match-winning goal for his team in 1-0 win against Argentina at New Jersey on Sunday. Torres thundered the ball in the back of the net with his left-foot in the 106th minute after Nico Williams set him up.

Torres came on as a substitute in the second half and he was able to hit the ground running. Spain outplayed Argentina as they took 20 shots whereas the latter could only manage two shots.

“I think in the end the goal came from 47 million people [approximately the population of Spain], not just those of us that are here,” he said, speaking to FIFA host broadcasters after the match. “Today destiny was written, it was made for us to win. We’re far from our people today but we tried to be as close as possible to them.

“Finals are hard. When you have [Lionel] Messi on the opposing team you do get worried, but we always backed ourselves and tried to show our football and I think we managed to do it once again.”

Meanwhile, Emiliano Martinez was the pick of the Argentine players as his saves kept the defending champions in the contest. However, Torres was able to breach the deadlock and breathed a sigh of relief after scoring the most important goal of his career.

“A huge relief [to score],” he said. “I’ve been criticized throughout the whole tournament but, as I said before, destiny was written.

“Thanks to God, he always gives me the strength to continue, and in the end he grants things to those that most deserve them.”

On the other hand, Argentina’s boss Lionel Scaloni admitted Spain were better than them.

“They [Spain] were better, that’s the truth,” he said. “But I’ll hold on to an enormous memory of what they’ve done, of what it’s worth to get this far. We’re great in victory and we have to be great in defeat. Today we’re showing that we know how to lose. We lost the match and we’re owning it.

“But that doesn’t mean we’ll stop remembering everything we did to get here.”