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Hours earlier, Portugal had beaten Morocco by a scoreline of 1-0. The Northern African nation became the first team to be eliminated from the World Cup. Egypt and Saudi Arabia soon followed suit and suffered the same fate as Morocco as Uruguay secured an unconvincing 1-0 victory over The Green Falcons.
In Spain's exciting opener against Portugal, the 2010 World Cup champions were held to a 3-3 draw. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick against La Roja and David de Gea made a rare costly mistake for his side. The two European sides ultimately had to share a point each.
As soon as the match kicked off, Spain started to attack. However, they found it difficult to penetrate Iran's line of defence. The Iranian players positioned themselves deep in their own half and absorbed the pressure Spain was exerting on them. Tensions thickened when players got into quarrels and were unhappy with each other's antics.
It remained goalless at half-time. While the Spanish had plenty of chances to take the lead, their attempts were blocked by their opponents who put every single man in their own half to defend. Carlos Queiroz's men left very little space for their opponents.
Besides that, his men also seemed to lack the desire to attack. A win would see them advance to the Round of 16 but the pressure was on Spain to grab all three points and be level with Portugal.
Within seconds after the second half began, Spain continued from where they left off. Great goalkeeping efforts from Alireza Beiranvand kept Spain at bay. After Iran nearly opened the scoring, Diego Costa scored his third goal of the campaign at the opposite end. In response to that goal, the Iranians started to press higher and threaten de Gea with their shots.
The Asian team responded as quickly as they could, scoring through a set-piece. However, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) eventually disallowed the goal as the player was offside. Many reacted negatively to the use of VAR in the process of the match. Spain eventually won the game 1-0 with Costa scoring the only game.
After watching the match, some have been impressed by Iran's terrific and resilient performance against Hierro's side. Here is how the fans reacted to the result of the match.
