The battling Basque crashed home the winner on the hour, less than a minute after Zlatko Zahovic had equalised a fourth-minute strike by Raul.

After weathering a first-half storm, unfancied Slovenia had looked for a few seconds as if they might embarrass the Group C favourites but Exteberria rifled home after Gaizka Mendieta's cross-field run.

The result will ease the pressure on Jose Antonio Camacho and his team after their defeat against Norway. Accusations of under-achievement began to resurface but Raul's brilliant early goal lifted spirits.

He pounced to lash the ball into the top corner of Mladen Dabanovic's goal after Michel Salgardo's speculative long-range had ricocheted kindly into his path.

It was a blistering drive for the Real Madrid star, taking his international tally to 17, but more importantly it settled Spanish nerves against a team who have already proved capable of upsetting the odds.

Spain should have gone on to dominate, carving out plenty of chances but failed to put the Slovenians to the sword and almost paid the price in the second half.

Slovenia had played with flair for an hour against Yugoslavia, five days earlier, but European football's new-boys showed their naivety when they surrendered a three-goal lead in six second-half minutes.

Inexperience was naturally detectable against Spain. Juan Carlos Valeron moved in for the kill as Slovenia tried to pass the ball out of defence in the 13th minute.

The Atletico Madrid midfielder won the ball and found Alfonso in the penalty area. He dragged his shot wide but it was a warning.

Raul was hungry for more goals after opening his Euro 2000 account. He arrowed a header over and was angry with himself for miscuing a left-foot volley after a neat interchange with Alfonso.

And Mendieta, one of four changes from Spain's defeat to Norway, showed his customary desire to get forward on the left.

Slovenia took until the 30th minute to engineer a worthwhile attack but, when it came, Mladen Rudonja had the chance to equalise.

Ales Ceh and Djoni Novak linked up down the right and Novak's cross found its way to Rudonja at the back-post. He took a touch before shooting and enabled Salgardo to hurl his body in front of the ball and deflect it wide.

Santiago Canizares twice denied Rudonja in the closing stages of the first half.

Raul rifled a snap-shot over the bar after the break and then escaped the attentions of Darko Milanic, booked in the first half and ruled out of the Norway game, to head inches wide.

Zahovic, two goal hero in the 3-3 draw in Charleroi, had been kept quiet for just under an hour by the Spaniards but he popped up in typical style to level the game.

Ref Markus Merk ignored offside calls against players in the centre as Rudonja broke down the left and, when the centre came into penalty area, Zahovic won the race to the ball.

He poked home his third goal of the finals, and his 25th in 48 games for his country but his joy was short-lived as Spain hit back within a minute.

Mendieta rampaged across the field on a run before slipping a pass into the path of Etxeberria who charged into the penalty box and crashed the ball past Dabanovic at his near post.

Canizares produced fine saves from Marinko Galic and Zahovic and, in between, Abelardo grazed the bar with a header from Mendieta's corner.