Again, not the most glamorous of displays, but Wales delivered another professional performance to see off Georgia and setup a monumental tie with Republic of Ireland on Monday night.
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“The Moldova game was very different to the Austria one, they sat deep and made it hard for us, but we got the win in the end”.
“The pressure is great because I’ve been used to there being nothing now, three games in and we’re out of it. You can’t play in your late 20s like you did when you were 19”. We haven’t been as close to Russian Federation as we are now.
Make no mistake – Georgia are much better than their ranking of 103rd in the world suggests, and there were times in the final half an hour when Wales lived extremely dangerously.
But it does not get any easier as Ireland now must beat Chris Coleman’s men in Cardiff on Monday or the dream ends. Last month, Chris Coleman won his first double header of qualifiers in six years as Wales manager. “If you are on a yellow and need to take another, so be it”. We need déjà vu.
Lawrence scored his first Wales goal with a fierce strike after half-time, and Coleman praised his defensive work as well as his attacking threat.
Belgium (pictured) were the first European nation to qualify alongside hosts Russian Federation and 24 nations went into their final two games with hopes of securing one of the 11 remaining Euro places.
The 23-year-old Derby County striker has featured in his country’s last three games – he was a late substitute against Serbia in Belgrade – and is now on eight senior global appearances.
“I love the sport, I love the fact that you can just get away from everything, be with your friends, and no one can come over to you on a golf course”. They won’t fear us, they won’t be afraid.
The Corkman declared: “Look, we knew we had to win, they are no mugs”.
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Finally, I picked the wrong centre-back when I chose Clark for the first goal in Georgia last month and Duffy popped up to put his side ahead early on. No fewer than seven players – Ramsey, skipper Ashley Williams, James Chester, Ben Davies, Joe Ledley, Andy King and Hal Robson-Kanu – are one booking away from missing the Republic game through suspension. “We’re good enough and we’re in a very good position”. Coleman and co. will certainly be wary of the threat posed by Ireland, but at this stage it would be a surprise if Wales failed to secure a top-two finish.
