Pedro´s scrambled effort just before the hour mark was Spain´s reward for dominating possession and assured play despite coming into the game trailing France by two points at the top of the group.[break]
The home team were always a threat going forward but could not find a way past Victor Valdes in the Spain goal and finished the game with 10 men after young midfielder Paul Pogba was sent off late on.
With just three matches left to play, Spain now lead France by a point, with only one team qualifying automatically for the finals in Brazil.
"I am happy tonight because the three points put us in a good situation, but also because we stuck to our style," said Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque.
"We could have won by a greater margin in the end."
France coach Didier Deschamps added: "We kept battling, even when down to 10 men, but it is not easy against a team that dominates like Spain do.
"You need to take your chances and get some breaks, and that wasn´t the case for us."
Del Bosque welcomed Xavi Hernandez back into the Spain starting line-up after injury, while Xabi Alonso, Pedro and left-back Nacho Monreal also came in as four changes were made from Friday´s surprise 1-1 draw with Finland.
Meanwhile, Deschamps kept faith with youngsters Raphael Varane and Pogba after both impressed on their debuts in last Friday´s win against Georgia as the hosts matched Spain´s 4-3-3 formation.
Spain, playing all in red, should have taken the lead from their first attack, Monreal cutting the ball back for Xavi to blaze over from a glorious position inside the penalty box five minutes in.
Karim Benzema had been criticised for his recent poor form at international level, but he was not afraid to try his luck at the other end with a first-time attempt from Christophe Jallet´s cutback as France pressed.
Despite that opening, Spain soon settled into their rhythm, controlling possession and removing the sting from the game.
Chances followed, with Xavi firing rather tamely wide after being picked out by Alonso, before a Pedro shot was easily held by Hugo Lloris.
Then came a moment of real controversy on the half-hour mark when Pedro went to ground under a challenge from Lloris as both players went for a through ball.
Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai waved away the vociferous Spanish appeals for a spot-kick as television replays suggested the Barcelona player was already going to ground before contact was made.
The visitors´ anger would have been even greater had they fallen behind seven minutes before the interval.
Mathieu Valbuena found Franck Ribery, whose first touch, with his head, took him clean through on goal, but Valdes won his duel with the Bayern Munich winger.
The game remained level at the interval but Spain´s share of possession in the first-half was upwards of 75 percent, and the world champions did not have to wait too much longer to break through.
In the 58th minute, Monreal cut in from the left flank and drilled the ball across goal, with Pedro reacting quickest to divert it goalwards.
A desperate Lloris got a touch but just couldn´t stop the ball crossing the line and the little winger from Tenerife raced away to celebrate with the travelling fans.
France were now chasing the game but Pedro came close to scoring again from substitute Jesus Navas´ centre soon after.
The home side, who came from behind to draw 1-1 in the reverse fixture in Madrid in October, remained a threat on the break and Blaise Matuidi forced a save out of Valdes after being picked out by Ribery.
But their hopes of finding a way back into this match bit the dust when Pogba was dismissed with 12 minutes remaining. Having been booked just moments before, he was cautioned again for a studs-up tackle on Xavi.
Montenegro peg England back to preserve lead
PODGORICA, Montenegro, March 26: Montenegro produced a rousing second-half display to earn a 1-1 draw at home to England on Tuesday that enabled them to preserve a two-point lead in their World Cup qualifying group.
Wayne Rooney appeared to have atoned for his red card on his last visit to Podgorica by giving England a sixth-minute lead that looked set to send Roy Hodgson´s side to the top of Group H.
However, the hosts rallied after the interval at a raucous Podgorica City Stadium and claimed a deserved equaliser in the 76th minute when substitute Dejan Damjanovic bundled home.
"We stopped playing after the break for 20 or 30 minutes and away from home you can´t afford to do that," England captain Steven Gerrard told ITV.
"They took control in the second half apart from the last 10 minutes, but we are still confident we can finish top of the group."
The result means that, if Montenegro win at home to Ukraine in June, England will be five points off the pace by the time they play their next qualifier at home to Moldova in September.
On his team´s mid-game revival, Montenegro coach Branko Brnovic explained: "I told them clearly there´s nothing to be afraid of. We should put the ball on the ground and be calm in starting the action again."
England coach Hodgson made six changes to the team that outclassed San Marino 8-0, with Gerrard returning alongside Glen Johnson, Ashley Cole, Michael Carrick, James Milner and Danny Welbeck.
England had been promised a caustic atmosphere, and fighting broke out between the home fans before the game had even begun, but if there had been any pre-match nerves in the visiting ranks, they did not show.
In the third minute, Rooney beat Mladen Bozovic with a delicately measured lob that came back off the post, and three minutes later, the hosts´ goalkeeper had to touch a rising drive from Johnson over the bar.
From the corner that followed England went ahead, Rooney resisting the attentions of his marker to meet Gerrard´s delivery with a header that found the bottom-right corner for his 35th international goal.
Brnovic had put his faith in his "two Ferraris", Stefan Jovetic and Mirko Vucinic, but they were initially subdued; Jovetic dragging wide in the 15th minute.
Milner drilled a shot wide for England, while Rooney narrowly failed to find Welbeck with a cross before being unable to adjust himself quickly enough to convert a low centre from Milner.
The visitors might even have had a penalty shortly before half-time, when Stefan Savic appeared to clip the escaping Welbeck inside the area, but instead the Manchester United forward was booked for diving.
Brnovic introduced striker Damjanovic at half-time and the early stages of the second half saw the home side procure a glut of chances.
Jovetic hit the side-netting with a header, Marko Basa headed wide, Jovetic hooked a volley off-target, and Vucinic should have done better than place a half-volley over the bar when a half-cleared corner fell to him.
England goalkeeper Joe Hart also had a heart-in-mouth moment, patting down a shot from Vucinic and then leaping on the ball after it bounced off his leg towards the net.
Still Montenegro came, and in the 72nd minute Vucinic bent a shot inches wide of the right-hand post despite the unmarked Damjanovic screaming for the ball to his right.
Hart flew to his right to parry a crisp half-volley from Jovetic and from the corner that followed, a scramble saw the ball squirt out and hit the post.
The compact stadium was rocking, and England´s resistance did not last long.
Damjanic claimed the equaliser, at the third attempt, bundling the ball home after Hart had saved his bullet header from a corner and his initial follow-up had been blocked.
Smoke from several flares drifted across the pitch as England struggled to respond, but Gerrard saw first a last-minute volley and then an injury-time free-kick repelled by Bozovic.
European Zone 2014 World Cup qualifier results on Tuesday:
Group A
At Brussels
Belgium 1 (Hazard 62) Macedonia 0
At Novi Sad, Serbia
Serbia 2 (Djuricic 60, 65) Scotland 0
At Swansea, Wales
Wales 1 (Bale 21-pen) Croatia 2 (Lovren 77, Eduardo 87)
Group B
At Copenhagen
Denmark 1 (Agger 63-pen) Bulgaria 1 (Manolov 51)
At Yerevan
Armenia 0 Czech Republic 3 (Vydra 47, 81, Kolar 90)
At Valetta
Malta 0 Italy 2 (Balotelli 8-pen, 45)
Group C
At Dublin
Ireland 2 (Walters 25-pen, 45+1) Austria 2 (Harnik 11, Alaba 90+2)
At Nuremberg, Germany
Germany 4 (Reuss 23, 90, Goetze 27, Gundogan 32) Kazakhstan 1 (Schmidtgal 46)
Group D
At Amsterdam, Netherlands
Netherlands 4 (van der Vaart 12, van Persie 56, 65-pen, Lens 90) Romania 0
At Istanbul
Turkey 1 (B. Yilmaz 62) Hungary 1 (Böde 71)
At Tallinn
Estonia 2 (Anier 45+1, Lindpere 61) Andorra 0
Group F
At Baku
Azerbaijan 0 Portugal 2 (Alves 63, Almeida 79)
At Belfast
Northern Ireland 0 Israel 2 (Rafaelov 78, Eden Ben Basat 84)
Group H
At Odessa, Ukraine
Ukraine 2 (Yarmolenko 61, Khacheridi 71) Moldova 1 (Suvorov 80)
At Podgorica
Montenegro 1 (Damjanovic 75) England 1 (Rooney 6)
At Warsaw
Poland 5 (Lewandowski 21-pen, 50, Piszczek 28, Teodorczyk 61, Kosecki 90+2) San Marino 0
At Paris
France 0 Spain 1 (Pedro 58)
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