Everton’s 12m transfer leads Wales to 4-0 victory

Wales, led by talisman Gareth Bale on the pitch, firmly believe there is more to come and with football in the country enjoying huge growth at all levels, they should be confident of reaching just their second World Cup finals and further speeding up the process. “But the overriding factor for me was trying to qualify again and go to a major tournament – I’ve still got the hunger and desire for that, nearly a desperation to do it again, having witnessed the scenes in the summer”. While before, and during the Euro, no one seriously took the Welsh, and they won the first group, which in addition they were the team of Slovakia, England and Russian Federation.

Wales bookended a late matchday two defeat against England with victories against Slovakia and Russian Federation in order to top their finals group and saw-off Northern Ireland and Belgium en route to a narrow semi-final defeat at the hands of eventual champions Portugal.

Gareth Bale set Wales on the path to reaching its first World Cup since 1958 with a double strike and an assist in a 4-0 victory over Moldova at the start of qualifying on Monday.

“Some of the goals he’s scored, especially his headed goals, remind me very much of Ronaldo”.

“After I played for Juventus and I came back to Liverpool I was a better all-round player but when I played for Wales you become more used to European football”.

“This will be my last campaign – I said that after the tournament”.

Rush added: “What we don’t want is people looking back in 10, 20 or even another 58 years’ time saying – remember Euro 2016”.

“The experience was incredible”. “We knew it was going to be tough and that we had to be patient and disciplined and I thought we did all of that”.

“If you are a manager at a club and things are going well, it’s a great feeling because you’ve got the whole city behind you”.

“It was important to acknowledge what we did, but also important to put that to bed a little bit”.

“Every result we get is massive, just as important as the last one”.

There is some evidence of improvement of late and Wales fans with long memories will recall an embarrassing 3-2 defeat in the run-up to Euro ’96, while the return of coach Igor Dobrovolski, under whom they finished a respectable fifth in attempting to qualify for Euro 2008, may well be viewed as a positive.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against”.

“I have been working hard in training to try to get up to speed and get my body in good shape”.

“The goal for us is qualification, and it’s probably the first time we’ve gone into a group stage with that expectation on us”, said Vokes.