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Diego Costa's third goal in two matches at the World Cup has lifted Spain to a 1-0 win over a stubborn Iran side Wednesday.
The win brought Spain level on points with Portugal in Group B after Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates defeated Morocco on the same score line. Portugal and Spain drew 3-3 in their tournament opener last week. But Iran could still go through depending on the results of the final group matches.
Costa has now scored nine goals in his last nine international starts for Spain. Only Ronaldo has more goals at the current World Cup, with four.
After a frustrating first half during which Spain could not find an edge to get past Iran well-organized defense, Costa broke the deadlock in the 54th minute after being set up by Andres Iniesta.
The powerful striker turned in the area and fired the ball, which took a deflection off Ramin Rezeian before bouncing back on the Atletico Madrid player and into the net.
Needing a goal, Iran changed strategy and it nearly paid off when Saeid Ezatolahi thought he had leveled but his goal was ruled out after the use of VAR.