Diego Costa buried difficult time at Brazil World Cup with a double

Diego Costa struggled to find his place with Spain at the Brazil World Cup but against Portugal a weight was lifted off his shoulders as he produced his best performance for La Roja since he debuted against Italy in 2013.

He hit two important goals for Spain, for the second time, with far more value to the team than the brace he got against Liechtenstein.

Costa was headache for the Portuguese defence from the start and had a running battle with Pepe, who he got the better of using his arm, that could have led to a freekick, for his first goal.

It was the Atletico Madrid striker that also drew Spain level again at 2-2, and he now has nine goals for the national team from 21 games. Eight of those have come in his last ten games for Spain.