Bale powers Wales closer to 1st tournament in 58 years

When Wales started their European Championship qualifying campaign against Andorra last September, it was marked by a lethargic, stilted performance that saw them eke out a victory thanks to Gareth Bale and a spirited defensive effort.

Andy King had the best chance of the game minutes later as Ramsey swung in a corner towards the back post but his header was straight at Ofir Marciano in the Israel goal.

“It’s a shame for our supporters who wanted to celebrate but it (qualification) is coming”, manager Coleman said after Wales had been frustrated by Israel’s backs-to-the-wall exercise.

“This game is going to be another battle for us, so we mustn’t get carried away by where we are in the rankings or where we are in the table”.

A small, craggy nation of some three million people that juts into the Irish Sea, Wales is renowned more for rugby union than football and fans of the round-ball game have seen enough disappointment to know not to count any chickens before kick-off on Sunday.

With Bosnia-Herzegovina beating Andorra late Sunday night, Israel needs four more points from its final two qualifiers to finish ahead of its main rival for third place and progress to the playoffs.

Even so, Wales very almost had the last laugh, Simon Church having a goal ruled out for offside in added time.

While this was a hardly a vintage display against a Cyprus team ranked a lowly 82 in the world, the joyous celebrations among Bale and his team-mates at full-time underlined that the result was all that mattered.

“But I don’t expect Cyprus to do us any favours, it’ll be a tough game for them”.

Coleman admitted in the build up to the game that he was likely to stick with the same side that won 1-0 in Nicosia, telling reporters “The players are honest”, he said.

“We’ve got our structure, we’ve got our game plan”.

“Physically we’ll look at our starting 11 and of course we’ll pick our strongest 11”. “In Cyprus it was 0-0 with about 10 minutes to go and maybe certain people were thinking: “Maybe they should be one or two goals up by now”.

Bale has been a huge reason Wales will qualify for the tournament, by scoring six goals in the tournament, and picking up two assists.

But Chelsea forward Eden Hazard struck for Belgium four minutes from time and Wales still need one point from their final two matches in October to make it to France.

And despite some hairy moments, Wales earned themselves the opportunity to reach their first major tournament since 1958 with a 1-0 win Cyprus.