Costa fluke gives Spain crucial win over Iran

Diego Costa was the difference for Spain as they toiled to a 1-0 victory over Iran in World Cup Group B.

Spain were looking for their first win of the tournament after a breathless 3-3 draw with Portugal in their opening match, while Iran knew that a point would keep them level with Portugal, in contention of entering the knockout stages, having already won their match against Morocco.

Spain, as expected, dominated their opponents through possession, but they struggled to create any chances of merit. Brendan Rodgers once called this type of tactic, “death by football,” but this was closer to Arsene Wenger’s pithy dismissal of, “sterile domination.”

Spain’s best chance of the half came with an overhead kick for David Silva after Iran had properly failed to clear a corner. The unusual creation of the chance, far from tiki-taka, betrayed how little inspiration Spain could summon.

As Iran defended adroitly and with discipline, Spain started to grow frustrated. Diego Costa was cut off from his assorted playmakers, and risked a pointless booking when he appeared to deliberately tread on the toe of Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand. Only the referee’s reluctance to use VAR saved him from censure.

Spain’s senior players, including Sergio Ramos, remonstrated with the officials at half time to protest the time-wasting they perceived to be coming from Iran, but they soon showed they were better off focusing on their own performance.

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In the second half, Spain ramped up the pressure from the off, bringing a smart save from Beiranvand from a long-range Sergio Busquets shot, before Spain broke through when Ramin Rezaeian rattled a tackle against Costa’s shins, which cruelly deflected the ball past a wrong-footed goalkeeper.

Just after the hour mark Saeid Ezatolahi turned in the ball from a free kick, bringing what seemed like half of the substitutes onto the pitch to celebrate the goal, only for VAR to spot an offside from the original cross. That highlighted how narrow Spain’s advantage was, no matter how much of the ball they had.

With less than 10 minutes remaining, a towering Vahid Amiri header sent the ball flying, just over the bar, a warning to the Spanish that victory was not yet assured, nor were they as resilient as they once were. They are fortunate that they need only a draw against Morocco to see them through to the next round.