Robin van Persie headed home on the stroke of half time to cancel out Xabi Alonso's penalty as Spain and the Netherlands went in level at 1-1 in Salvador.

Predictably, it was Spain who dominated possession in the early stages, but the first clear chance of the game fell to the Dutch in the ninth minute.

Wesley Sneijder's run split the Spain defence and saw him close in on Iker Casillas, but he failed to find either corner as the Real Madrid goalkeeper made a routine save to deny the playmaker.

Diego Costa, being greeted with jeers by the Brazilian supporters inside the ground due to his decision to play for Spain, collected the ball in an excellent position inside the box a few minutes later, but Ron Vlaar recovered impressively to dispossess his rival.

The Atletico Madrid forward's running off the ball continued to be a problem for the Dutch, and he was finally rewarded when Stefan de Vrij slid in to concede a penalty after Costa had threatened to unleash a shot.

Alonso stepped up from 12 yards to calmly drill the ball past a helpless Jasper Cillessen and hand the defending champions the advantage.

Louis van Gaal's side responded well to falling behind as Daley Blind came agonisingly close to picking out Van Persie with an inviting cross, before a speculative Nigel de Jong strike was easily stopped by Casillas.

Spain should have doubled their lead just before the break when Andres Iniesta expertly picked out the run of David Silva, but his chipped effort was tipped away by Cillessen.

Van Persie made the Spaniards pay for that miss in the 44th minute by beating the offside trap to smartly head home an inch-perfect delivery from Blind to level the scores.