Diego Costa gets luck of the bounce as Spain deny unfortunate Iran 

The Guardian: Amidst the din, Iran’s footballers collapsed to the floor exhausted and someone decided to put Y Viva España on the PA system. Spain had lived, but dangerously. Iran had been defeated, but only just.

Three times Carlos Queiroz’s team might have scored: the first had hit the side-netting, subs and staff running from the bench before they realised it had gone wide; the second was ruled out for offside, but not before celebrations were well under way; and the third flew over the bar from six yards, Mehdi Taremi barely able to believe it.

Fernando Hierro’s team, meanwhile, did score, but only once. And when the breakthrough came, for all the football, for all the intent, it did so via Diego Costa’s knee.
World Cup 2018: Iran 0-1 Spain – as it happened
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The fortune Iran had enjoyed in the first game against Morocco deserted them. It also forced them into a change of plan that almost worked too, the talent brought to the fore. As for Spain, they secured a victory that leaves them well-placed to progress now.

After a first half when they had the ball but were unable to produce the goal they needed, Spain got it early in the second. They needed it, but had not always looked like getting it during an opening 45 minutes in which Iran had played deep, waited, defended. Spain had expected that but they had not found a solution for it.

In part, that is because Iran do it well. Unbeaten in four years of competitive matches, they had played 22 times without defeat, keeping a clean sheet in 18 of them. “They are,” Hierro had warned, “a team that’s solid defensively, is very clear in its ideas; a hard team that let in few goals and has scored 37 in their last 19, 40% of them from set plays. We will see a team that’s tough, physically very powerful and that will make it very difficult.”

They did that, all right. What surprised perhaps was that, ultimately, they did not only do so when they were defensive, they did so when the game changed and they went for Spain. Ultimately, they were unfortunate not to be rewarded for it >>>