The narrow win is Spain's second in two Group A matches, after the European champions thrashed New Zealand 5-0 in the two teams' opening encounter.

Iraq remain with one point from two games ahead of their final meeting against New Zealand, who will play hosts South Africa later on Wednesday.

Del Bosque opted to introduce a different line up to the Spain team which beat New Zealand. Gerard Pique and Carlos Marchena lead the Red Fury from the back.

While Xavi Alonso and Xavi Hernandez continued in central midfield, Juan Mata and Santi Cazorla took their place on both flanks.

Iraq's courageous defence did well to prevent Spain from scoring throughout the whole first half.

Villa had a chance to take the lead for his team but his left-footed volley went wide of Iraq's post on 25 minutes.

Cazorla saw another shot from outside the box miss the target five minutes later.

Villa should have broken the deadlock after the interval when Cazorla's cross found him totally unmarked in the box but the forward's header went straight at Mohamed Kassed.

However, the sought after player made up for such miss by brilliantly converting a Joan Capdevila cross into the back of the net on 55 minutes.

Despite a number of shy attempts from the Iraqis, Bora Milutinovic's side couldn’t score an equalizer to end the game in a 1-0 loss.