Costa finds a way to get sluggish Spain a win
Patience is a virtue, and Spain showed plenty of it to overcome a tough challenge from Iran at the World Cup.
During a frustrating evening at the Kazan Arena when the 2010 champions struggled to break through the stubborn Iranian defense, Diego Costa scored on a deflection for a 1-0 victory Wednesday.
Costa scored in the 54th minute after being set up by Andres Iniesta. The striker turned in the area and took a shot that deflected off Ramin Rezeian before bouncing back onto Costa’s knee and into the net.
It was far from a beautiful win, but the goal was enough to make Spain coach Fernando Hierro smile.
“We have four points,” Hierro said. “We were happier after the match against Portugal, but we only had one point.”
Spain and Portugal lead Group B with four points each following their 3-3 draw and 1-0 victories. Iran has
three points, but Morocco has been eliminated.
Costa, who scored twice against Portugal, has three goals at this year’s World Cup, trailing Cristiano Ronaldo by one. He also has nine goals in his last nine starts for Spain. He only had one chance against Iran, and he converted it.
“It’s going be tight [with Ronaldo],” Hierro said. “I know Diego is really committed, he has scored three goals in three matches. He can do better, he works hard, he is fighting both at the back and at the front.”
Facing a very compact Iranian team that came out to defend, Spain pressed high and controlled much of the game but found it difficult to threaten against Iran’s 10-man defense.
Spurred on by their vociferous fans, Iran’s imposing players did well to handle Spain’s attacks. Iran was also dangerous on the break, using the speed of its attacking players to threaten the Spanish back four but without creating many real chances.
Spain was mostly dangerous from set pieces, including in the 25th minute when a free kick from David Silva that took a deflection was stopped by Iran goalkeeper Ali Beiranvand.
Spain continued to apply strong pressure in the second half and Beiranvand stopped a strike from Sergio Busquets in the 49th minute with a superb one-handed diving save.
He then palmed the rebound away before Lucas Vazquez could get to the ball.
Hierro’s players were almost caught against the run of the play when Karim Ansarifard unleashed a powerful strike that ended up in the side-netting following a long throw-in.
Then, trailing in the second half, Iran nearly equalized when Saeid Ezatolahi had a goal ruled out on video review.
Uruguay 1, Saudi Arabia 0: With a single goal, Luis Suarez settled the fate of four teams in the group stage of the World Cup.
The controversial striker, who was making his 100th appearance in his national team’s light blue, scored to give Uruguay a victory in Rostov-on-Don and a spot in the round of 16.
The result, though, had a domino effect in Group A. It also put host Russia into the next round while eliminating both Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Suarez, who was kicked out of the last World Cup for biting an opponent during a match, knocked in a corner kick from Carlos Sanchez in the 23rd minute for his 52nd goal for his country in that century of matches.
“We are more than proud because we’ve reached the knockout stage at three successive World Cups. It’s a beautiful moment and we want to enjoy it,” Suarez said. “We still haven’t hit our stride so we need to tweak some things.”
Uruguay and Russia both have six points from their opening two matches, putting them into the round of 16 with a match to They will face each other on Monday in Samara with first place in Group A on the line.
Besides scoring, Suarez led his team with a hardworking effort. He fell back to defend and raced alongside Edinson Cavani on the counterattack.
“I don’t want to hand out empty praise, but Suarez is a crucial player for us. And he has that enormous capacity to score goals,” Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez said. “He lives under enormous pressure, but he lives with it. He takes that pressure on.”
The 71-year-old Tabarez is the oldest coach at the tournament and also led Uruguay to the World Cup semifinals in 2010.
“We do want to score more, but there are other positives: no yellow cards, no injuries,” Tabarez said. “We'll see who we get now [in the next round] . ... All the teams out there are good. We respect all of them. That is a cardinal rule for us.”