Spain scraped a lucky 1-0 win over impressive Iran thanks to a deflected Diego Costa goal, as the equaliser was ruled offside with VAR.
It was a surprisingly strong start from the Iranians, who were buoyed by a shock win over Morocco. Spain’s tough campaign continued, having sacked Coach Julen Lopetegui two days before the tournament began due to his deal with Real Madrid and drawn the opening game 3-3 with Portugal.
Spain scraped a lucky 1-0 win over impressive Iran thanks to a deflected Diego Costa goal, as the equaliser was ruled offside with VAR.
It was a surprisingly strong start from the Iranians, who were buoyed by a shock win over Morocco. Spain’s tough campaign continued, having sacked Coach Julen Lopetegui two days before the tournament began due to his deal with Real Madrid and drawn the opening game 3-3 with Portugal.
David Silva turned over from close range, but the almost Catenaccio tactics of Iran ensured Spain dominated possession without really getting a shot on goal in the first half.
They did after the restart, as Ali Beiranvand flew to push away a Sergio Busquets strike and get the rebound away from Lucas Vazquez.
Iran thought they had taken the lead on 53 minutes from a set-piece, but the ferocious Karim Ansarifard half-volley only struck the side-netting.
Moments later, Spain broke through instead with a bit of luck, as Diego Costa turned between two defenders, but Ramin Rezaeian’s clearance ricocheted off the Spaniard’s shin to wrong-foot Beiranvand.
Iran did get the ball in the net with Saeid Ezatolahi, but VAR disallowed the goal for an offside position after several very tense minutes.
Haji Safi went off injured and Iran used bodies as human shields to stop Diego Costa tapping in from a yard, but Iran caused some huge scares to David De Gea.
First Mehdi Taremi just failed to get on the end of a cross, then Vahid Amiri nutmegged Gerard Pique to assist a Taremi header inches over the bar.
Iran 0-1 Spain
Diego Costa 54 (S)
Iran: A Beiranvand; Ramin, M Hosseini, M Pouraliganji, Haji Safi (Mohammadi 69); Omid, S Ezatolahi; Karim (Jahanbakhsh 74), Mehdi, V Amiri; Sardar
Spain: De Gea; Carvajal, Pique, Ramos, Jordi Alba; Sergio Busquets, Iniesta (Koke 70); Silva, Isco, Lucas Vazquez (Asensio 79); Diego Costa (Rodrigo 88)
Ref: Cunha (URU)