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Wales closer to first finals since 1958

Israel manager Eli Gutman felt it was a correct call not to award Wales a second-half spot-kick.

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With three minutes left they though they had it as the Real Madrid man worked half a yard for himself to shoot but Marciano got his fingertips to a well driven shot to keep it out.

Gareth Bale’s late winner in the Pyrenees was greeted by a mini-pitch invasion of jubilant fans and the Football Association of Wales were subsequently fined £3,950 and warned by UEFA over the future behaviour of their supporters.

Ramsey was denied by a fine Georgallides save before Bale finally broke the deadlock in the 82nd minute with a towering header from Taylor’s cross to put Wales on the verge of an historic achievement.

After getting the benefit of that decision from referee Szymon Marciniak, Coleman’s side thought they had taken the lead in the 27th minute when David Edwards headed home Bale’s cross.

Robson-Kanu turned sharply on the halfway line and the ball broke kindly for Bale to bear down on the Cyprus goal.

“So we have got the option if we want to mix it up but we can also do that within the game”.

Chris Coleman’s side could have secured their place in the group stage of the 2016 European Championship with victory over Israel on Sunday evening, but they had to settle for a share of the spoils.

I think Gareth Bale is the greatest player ever to play for Wales”, said BBC pundit Robbie Savage, who won 39 caps and was involved in one of their many near-misses – a play-off defeat by Russia that cost a place at Euro 2004.

For much of the night the world’s most expensive footballer had struggled and at times it seemed as if he was trying too hard to bend a disappointing game in Wales’s favour.

Coleman said his squad would not deviate from their path of focusing on what is immediately in front of them, and not the long-term reward on offer.

“They made it very difficult for us but it’s another point”.

“Like I’ve said all along, this is our own path we’re taking”.

“We’ve got to live up to the expectation”.

“But we’ll just try and concentrate on putting another performance in and hopefully we’ll get rewarded for that”.

With three games remaining, Israel stayed two points behind Belgium in third after routing Andorra 4-0.

“It would be nice to go into the October camp not needing anything. We surrounded the Welsh players when they attacked”.

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Andorra have only claimed one point away from home in competitive matches, a goalless draw against Macedonia in 2005. We need to be realistic.

Israel shut out Gareth Bale in Cardiff