Rustenburg, South Africa - Tournament favourites Spain booked their place in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup Wednesday while hosts South Africa secured their first victory of tournament.

Spain needed a second-half goal from David Villa to secure a 1-0 victory over a dogged Iraqi side in Bloemfontein's Free State Stadium while two goals from Bernard Parker gave the Bafana Bafana a 2-0 win over New Zealand in Rustenburg.

With two wins from two matches, the Spanish will now be able to rest key players ahead of their final Group A contest against South Africa Saturday, with the hosts needing a draw to ensure progress themselves.

Despite the narrow result, the Spanish were happy with the performance.

"It was a difficult contest," revealed goalscorer Villa. "But we got the three points and achieved our first goal, which was to reach the semi-finals. That's all that matters."

The win was Spain's 14th on the trot, equalling the mark for the most consecutive victories by a national team - a record shared by Australia, Brazil and France. They have also now gone 34 matches without a defeat and are one match away from equalling Brazil's streak of 35.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque was pleased in the end with his side's effort.

"We played by the book when you face a defensive team," he said. "We went down the wings more and had at least 10 good scoring opportunities, so the scoreline could have been bigger. But we did what we wanted to do."

Parker, meanwhile, finally kickstarted his country's tournament after the disappointing scoreless draw against Iraq in their opening game.

Parker struck in each half to move South Africa second in Group A on four points, two behind Spain.

"My team-mates helped me to put the incident (of stopping the goal) behind me and helped me to focus on the game ahead," said Parker, referring to the incident against Iraq when he inadvertently cleared a header from team-mate Kagisho Dikgacoi off the line.

"We needed a little bit of luck which we did not have in the first game and this time we had it."

The performance by Joel Santana's team was much more fluid than their previous outing thanks in no small part to the return of Everton's Steven Pienaar.

Although 10,000 free tickets were made available for the game with the All Whites, the stadium was still not full but the 36,598 who were present witnessed a South African side that attacked from the start.

Indeed, Thembinkosi Fanteni could have put South Africa in front as early as the second minute but he fluffed his shot while Teko Modise shot just wide two minutes later.

Pienaar was the next to threaten on 17 minutes but New Zealand goalkeeper Glen Moss comfortably saved his effort but Bafana Bafana finally got the goal they deserved when Tsepo Masilela set up Parker, who fired home a crisp shot from 10 metres.

Parker nearly netted his second of the game with a shot from the edge of the area on 32 minutes but Moss deflected his effort wide with his left foot.

However, Parker got the further goal his overall play deserved seven minutes into the second half in a virtual carbon copy of his first, which was set up by Pienaar and Masilela.

"With these supporters, I think we can even beat Spain now, we did so well," said Masilela. "Bernard was in the right place at the right time."(dpa)