Bale buries Belgium, Iceland stuns Czechs
Print Edition
GARETH Bale struggled to express his emotions after scoring the goal against Belgium that took Wales to within sight of its first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup.
The Real Madrid forward pounced on a misdirected header by Radja Nainggolan to put Wales ahead in the 25th minute at the Cardiff City Stadium on Friday and the hosts held firm to open up a three-point lead over Belgium in 2016 European Championship qualifying Group B.
It was the perfect way to crown his 50th international appearance and having endured a difficult season in Madrid, the 25-year-old will go into the close season with a smile on his face.
“It’s hard to put it into words,” Bale told Sky Sports. “We prepared well, played some good football and battled in every area.
“After 70 minutes, I was gone. The gaffer (Chris Coleman) said to leave nothing out there on the pitch and we did that. Now we can enjoy our summer.”
Wales’s qualification campaign resumes in September, when it visits Cyprus before hosting Israel, both of whom are five points below it in the race for the two automatic qualifying berths.
“The stadium was bouncing from the warm-up,” said Wales captain Ashley Williams, who marshalled a defense that kept Belgium’s stellar attack of Christian Benteke, Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne at bay.
“When you work that hard, you’ve got to enjoy these moments.”
Elsewhere, Iceland came from a goal down to beat the Czech Republic 2-1 at the Laugardallsvollur arena in Reykjavik.
In three home Euro 2016 qualifiers Iceland has defeated all its major rivals — the Netherlands, Turkey and the Czechs — and it tops Group A on 15 points after six games with Kazakhstan and Latvia still to visit.
Vaunted Dutch forwards Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie all drew blanks in Reykjavik and the only goal Iceland has conceded in its home qualifiers was Borek Dockal’s unstoppable rocket for the Czechs.
Iceland never faltered, however, and goals from Aron Gunnarsson and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson turned the game in its favor on a famous night in the capital.
The Netherlands won 2-0 in Latvia to retain hopes of an automatic berth at next year’s finals.
In Group H, beaten Euro 2012 finalist Italy came from behind to draw 1-1 in Croatia in a game played behind closed doors in Split as a consequence of fan violence and racist incidents when Croatia played Norway earlier in the campaign.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
