Spain remain within three points of Group C leaders Slovakia after winning 1-0 away to Belarus in Borisov.

Vicente del Bosque's side started on the front foot as Pedro was denied by Andrey Gorbunov in the opening seconds before Alvaro Morata fired narrowly wide of goal.

David Silva appealed for a penalty midway through the first half after going to ground under pressure from Maksim Bordachev, although the referee was unmoved by his protests.

La Seleccion continued to press for an opener and almost found it in dramatic style as Jordi Alba clipped a first-time volley just wide of the target.

However, La Roja were gifted a breakthrough via a mistake from Gorbunov as the Belarussian keeper failed to connect with an attempted punch before Silva passed the ball into an empty net on the stroke of half time

Belarus started the second period with intent and thought they had levelled the match on 50 minutes when Maksim Volodko beat Iker Casillas, only to be flagged for offside.

The hosts continued to push for an equaliser and perhaps should have got back on terms after Bordachev found space in the Spain penalty area only to skew his strike well wide of Casillas's goal.

Just after the hour mark, Belarus again threatened to breach the visitors' backline when Ivan Maevski's curling effort was acrobatically tipped away by the Real Madrid shot-stopper.

Spain then had two chances in quick succession to put the game beyond their opponents as Silva saw a shot deflected wide before Santi Cazorla brought a stop out of Gorbunov from the resulting corner.

However, the visitors were able to see out a narrow win and stay three points behind Slovakia, who maintained their 100% qualifying record with victory over Macedonia.