Madrid leading sports paper Marca flagged the words "Broken Dream" in their headline and said Spain were sent packing earlier than anybody imagined.

"The Spanish team have the gift of easily creating high expectations and giving them away with the same ease," the paper said.

Spain went one up thanks to a David Villa penalty-kick but Frank Ribery leveled before the break and veterans Patrick Vieira and Zinedine Zidane scored late goals to oust Luis Aragones' young men from the round of 16.

"Spain entered the tie as favorites, supported by three victories in the group stage, a youthful and confident side and facing a team of pensioners who needed a last-minute victory over Togo to qualify.

"But when things got serious, the defeat fell into the lap of those who are used to it."

Spain have never beaten France in a competitive game and the Spaniards still remember the 2-1 defeat against Les Bleus in the quarter-finals of EURO2000 while the older supporters can't forget a bitter 2-0 loss in the final of 1984.

Daily newspaper AS were less philosophical and more cynical over Spain's elimination.

They ran a "Colorin Colorado" headline, a phrase from a verse that Spanish-speaking children say when they finish reading a good story.

"There will be no quarter-finals with Brazil. This game is left to Zidane and his team mates whose experience overcame a penalty scored by Villa," read the paper's top story.

"In this tournament, we expected to go beyond the quarter-finals stage that we usually reach, but it has been worse, bringing us the memory of 1990 World Cup when we lost to Yugoslavia in the second round.

"Even (World Cup debutants) Ukraine went further, this time we have no real excuses."

El Pais, Spain's newspaper of public record, opted for a moderate tone saying that the Spanish team are heading back home after failing to match France's class.

"The team that looked one of the best Spanish squads of all-time were victims of their own failure. They couldn't fight or enjoy a winning spirit," it said.

"Aragones chose a wrong line-up and made the wrong substitutions and he was outplayed, for the first time in this tournament, by counterpart Raymond Domenech."