The Leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has praised Iran's national football team after their wonderful and stirring performance against Spain, one of the main contenders for this year's FIFA World Cup.

According to an Iran Press report, quoting from the  Iranian Football Federation website, the  Leader of the Islamic revolution sent a message to the Iranian national football team on Wednesday night, after an inspiring performance by the Iranian team, who kept a clean sheet until well  into the second half, when a shot hit the leg of Spain's center forward, Diego Manuel Costa, and ended up in the back of the Iranian net . This was the only goal of a hard-fought match which ended with a not-so-convincing 1 - 0 Spanish win.

The supportive message from  the Leader of the Islamic revolution simply said:  "You did an excellent job!  May god give you strength".

Mehdi Taaj , the head of the Football Federation, congratulated the Iranian national football team and wished them success in the World Cup.