Wales qualifying for the Euros finals in France next summer, despite losing 2-0 away in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Coleman’s men couldn’t find a way through in the first half, despite eight minutes of added time, but it only took five minutes of the second half for them to finally break the deadlock.
“I have never celebrated a loss like that”.
“But when I was walking off I saw our supporters were singing and our secretary, Mark Evans, whispered in my ear that Israel had lost”.
“I certainly won’t be experimenting – that would be hypocritical on one hand saying to the players that every time you put the jersey on it has to mean everything and then me saying I’m going to mess about with my formation”.
“But it is an absolute dream”.
“There’s going to be a full house, the atmosphere will be electric and we didn’t want it to be a dam squib, we want to finish well”.
“We have not set a date for talks because, in fairness to the FAW, I asked if we could wait until we had qualified as it would be a distraction”, said Coleman.
Wales failed to secure the point that they needed to confirm a place at next summer’s Finals in France, but it did not matter. “But this group have gone that extra yard”. Their commitment to the cause from the start has been fantastic. “We can celebrate and hopefully we can win the game and have a nice night after it”.
“Everyone back home deserves to have a smile on their face”.
“A lot of people said to me in the first campaign about them being described as the golden generation”, Coleman said after Wales had closed their campaign with a 2-0 victory over Andorra thanks to goals from Ramsey and Bale in Cardiff.
And Coleman was quick to praise the fans, who he said have played their part in his side’s success.
Andorra, where this triumphant campaign for Coleman and his men began, thirteen months ago – and where, let’s not forget, Wales were ominously a goal down after just six minutes – turned up to be the irritants, or maybe the cabaret.
And after a lengthy stoppage inside the opening ten minutes, when midfielder Victor Pereira was floored following a clash of heads with James Chester before being carrier off on a stretcher, Andorra dug in to frustrate Wales with only the lone forward Aaron Sanchez playing ahead of the ball.
He said: “This was a dream of mine and we’ve done it. As you can see everyone is delighted”.
“The most important thing was our victory but the situation has become more complicated because Cyprus could also qualify for the European Championship”.
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Burnley strike Sam Vokes missed a couple of good chances to extend Wales’s lead before Bale, appropriately, had the last word by firing Ramsey’s flukey pass into the bottom corner on 85 minutes.
