Gerard Pique scored the only goal of the game on the hour mark to hand Spain their fifth win of the campaign and they know a similar result in Istanbul on Wednesday will leave them on the verge of booking their ticket to South Africa.

The Euro 2008 champions are now eight points clear of Turkey, who have slipped to third, and six above second-placed Bosnia-Herzegovina who catapulted themselves into World Cup qualifying contention with an impressive 4-2 away win over Belgium in Genk.

However, Bosnia's victory was marred by an incident in the second half where smoke bombs were thrown on to the pitch by some away fans.

The referee had to take the players off while Bosnia coach Miroslav Blazevic appealed for calm.

The home side went into the match a point ahead of their opponents but their hopes of reaching South Africa were dealt a serious blow.

Edin Dzeko gave Bosnia an early lead and they kept that advantage until midway through the second half when Moussa Dembele equalised.

However, the visitors hit back with three goals in 12 minutes through Sanel Jahic, Zlatan Bajramovic and Zvjezdan Misimovic. Wesley Sonck's penalty a minute from time came too late to change things.

The result sees Bosnia leap into second spot in the group, a point above Turkey, while Belgium slip to fourth.

Elsewhere, a late goal from substitute Gevorg Ghazarian saw Armenia pick up their first point in the World Cup qualifiers as they held Estonia to a 2-2 draw to finally get off the mark in the group.

Henrikh Mkhitarian put Armenia ahead in the 33rd minute but their lead lasted just five minutes before Konstantin Vassiljev equalised.

Sergei Zeniov's 67th-minute goal looked to have won it for Estonia but Ghazarian pounced three minutes from time to clinch a point for rock-bottom Armenia.