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Diego Costa: The Spain striker celebrates a fortuitous goal v Iran at the 2018 World Cup

Iran 0-1 Spain: Diego Costa nets third World Cup goal in tough Group B clash

Football

Wed June 20, 2018 · 7y ago

Spain were made to dig deep in their second Group B match of the 2018 World Cup, edging past Iran with a 1-0 victory in Kazan.

Fernando Hierro's side got the victory thanks to a fortuitous second-half strike from Diego Costa - his third of the tournament - to keep him as one of the front-runners for the Golden Boot award at 5/1 with Sky Bet.

Golden Boot odds and contenders in Russia as Cristiano Ronaldo heads the betting

According to the online bookmaker, 2010 winners Spain are now 9/2 joint-favourites with Brazil to win the competition.

It was not as straight-forward as many expected, with Carlos Queiroz's Iran proving tough opposition who were difficult to break down.

Costa broke Iran's sturdy resistance on 54 minutes, turning on an Iniesta through-ball in the box and steering home, after the ball had ricocheted off Ramin Rezaeian and back onto the Atletico Madrid striker (see below).

It looked like Iran, who beat Morocco in their opening game, may have snatched a point as Saeed Ezatolahi's finish at the back post was ruled out for offside after a VAR review.

Their 1-0 win leaves Spain joint-top of their World Cup group with Portugal on four points, but Iran still have plenty to play for, just a point behind heading into their final match.

In Wednesday's other games, Portugal beat Morocco 1-0 and Uruguay won with the same scoreline v Egypt. If you backed all three teams in a treble with the correct 1-0 scorelines, Sky Bet would have offered odds of 233/1.

GOAL VIDEO: Diego Costa - Iran 0-1 Spain - 54'

GOAL! Spain have the breakthrough but it is a fortunate one. Costa turns inside the box and Rezaeian's clearance ricochets off the Spanish striker and into the net pic.twitter.com/Jwpw7HXj0k
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 20, 2018

DISALLOWED GOAL VIDEO: Saeed Ezatolahi - Iran 0-1 Spain - 54'

GOAL DISALLOWED! An IR Iran free-kick goes all the way through the Spanish defence and finds Ezatolahi at the back post who pokes it in but after a VAR review it is ruled out for offside pic.twitter.com/HN7IreyiGQ
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 20, 2018

Opta match statistics

Iran 0-1 Spain means there have been no 0-0 draws in any of the 20 games at the 2018 World Cup so far - the last time that this happened was in 1954 (no 0-0's in the 26-game tournament).
Iran failed to attempt a single shot on target in this match – the first time that they have failed to do so in a World Cup game (14 games overall).
This result means that all three matches today ended 1-0. The only other days in World Cup history to see three 1-0 wins in a single day were June 25th 1982 (3) and June 23rd 2010 (3).
Diego Costa scored with each of his first three shots on target at World Cup tournaments for Spain. He attempted one more after his goal, which means he’s attempted four overall.
Gerard Piqué won his 100th international cap for Spain in this match against Iran, becoming the 13th different player to reach this landmark for La Roja.