That’ll do from this. Cheers for reading, and we’ll be back tomorrow night with some more qualifying action.
Elsewhere, Iceland are now just a point away from qualifying after an extraordinary 1-0 win over the Netherlands in Amsterdam, a game in which Arjen Robben went off injured in the first half and Bruno Martins Indi was sent off. Here are the scores from the rest of tonight’s qualifiers.
Elsewhere in this group, Belgium came from behind to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-1, and while it looked like they were going to put away a bucketful, Israel ‘only’ beat Andorra 4-0. This is how the table looks now, with three games remaining.
One win away. Just one win away. The travelling Welsh fans go nuts behind the goal, and they are quite right to. They weren’t especially good in terms of an all-round performance, but that absolutely brilliant header by Bale was enough to earn them the win. If they beat Israel in Cardiff on Sunday, they’re through.
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Full-time: Cyprus 0-1 Wales
Peeeeeeeeeep!
90 mins + 2: Taylor does well to run the ball out of defence and down the left, but they give the ball away after Ramsey gives the ball away. That’s been a familiar theme in this one. Cyprus then advance up the other end but Economides shoots way over the bar. Sean McDonald comes on for Ramsey.
90 mins: Sub for Wales - Simon Church is on for Bale. Three minutes of added time to come.
89 mins: Great save by Hennessey! Nikolaou somehow chisels out some space for himself on the edge of the box and squirts a shot towards goal, but an unsighted Hennessey reacts slowly but then dives full to his left and claws it away.
88 mins: Lots of players out on their feet in Nicosia. None more so than Williams, who is still carrying that injury from earlier, but he’s defending like an absolute hero still.
86 mins: Good lord Cyprus nearly go level with a freak goal. Williams heads away a cross from the right, but it ricochets off Sotiriou, just introduced to the game, and zips just wide of the post, Hennessey rooted. Eeesh.
85 mins: “Typical,” glass-half-empties Matt Dony. “For the first time in a generation, we have a very good team, and we will probably qualify for a major championships on merit. But it’s massively devalued by UEFA letting about a million teams take part in the Euros.”
Not if you finish top of the group, Matt.
84 mins: Sub for Cyprus - Makris off, Sotiriou on.
83 mins: Genuinely sensational stuff that, from Wales. They’ve not been good for much of the preceding 80-odd minutes, but a few moments of real quality look to have won this one.
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82 mins: Magic stuff from the Welsh. Ramsey works himself some space from a throw on the right, then slips in a lovely pass to Richards, who clips over a cross into the middle. And there’s Bale, powering onto the ball and absolutely bulleting a header past the keeper, who barely smelt it. It’s close now!
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GOAL! Cyprus 0-1 Wales (Bale 82)
What a goal!
80 mins: From nowhere, a brilliant passage of play from Wales that should have resulted in a goal. Brilliant work from Edwards and Taylor leads to the latter creating space, then cutting back from the byline to Ramsey, but his shot is well saved. Great play, that.
79 mins: Another goal in Brussels, and the comeback is 100% complete as Eden Hazard sticks home a penalty to make it Belgium 3-1 Bosnia-Herzegovina.
78 mins: Ach, shocking stuff from Bale, shanking a simple, ten-yard pass intended for Taylor on the left wing way out of play. Eeesh.
77 mins: Another foul, this time Makris on Taylor. Still no booking. This ref might have brought a slim volume of poetry out with him instead of his notebook and cards. Hope he recites something in a bit.
76 mins: Half chance for new sub Englezou, getting the ball out on the left side of the area with a chance of a shot, but he drags it across goal and wide of the far post.
75 mins: Bale is chopped to the floor by Makridis. Still no booking.
74 mins: Sub for Cyprus - Charalambides is off, and Nikos Englezou is on.
72 mins: Bale drifts out to the left and drives towards the byline, cuts back at pace for Vokes in the middle but the Burley forward can’t quite get enough on the shot.
Meanwhile, Italy have taken the lead against Malta, through Graziano Pelle.
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70 mins: King again carelessly gives the ball away as he looks to switch the ball out to the left. Poor this from most of the Welsh midfield.
68 mins: Sub for Wales - Robson-Kanu, who has been excellent but has run his legs down to his knees, is replaced by Sam Vokes.
67 mins: More neat work from Robson-Kanu who plays a lovely little flick round a defender, but Ramsey had just strayed offside. The pitchside mic picks up one of the Welsh coaching staff do an absolutely colossal swear, which is always childishly entertaining to hear.
65 mins: Bale finally shows a bit of something, driving from around 35 yards out into the penalty area, but his cross can’t find either Ramsey or Robson-Kanu who were making rather tentative attempts to get into the box.
Meanwhile, a sub for Cyprus, as Giorgios Kolokoudias comes on instead of Mytidis.
63 mins: At this stage, Wales will probably be reasonably happy to get away with a draw from this one. Williams and Robson-Kanu apart, they’ve been relatively poor, so a point and some face saved would be smashing.
61 mins: Quiet spell. Makridis humps a cross from the left over to the far post, breezily ignoring the two or three attackers that had gathered at the near.
58 mins: Ramsey gives the ball away in midfield yet again, which sets Economides up to take a shot from the edge of the box, but it skims over. Andy King isn’t having the best of games either, so it’s clear where their problems lie in this game so far.
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55 mins: Williams has been colossal from about the 10th minute onwards. He makes two blocks in quick succession on the edge of the area after some iffy defending either side of him. He might actually have hurt himself doing that too, as he’s limping around. Hopefully for the Welsh side’s sake he’s OK.
53 mins: Hello. A goal in Amsterdam, and it’s gone to Iceland. Gylfi Sigurdsson makes it Netherlands 0-1 Iceland. Not a particularly inspiring start to the Danny Blind era, then.
51 mins: Brilliant defending from Williams, gliding out from defence in a McGrathian fashion to half a nascent Cypriot attack and launch a Welsh counter. Robson-Kanu is set through on goal but his touch is a little heavy, and Giorgallides does well to come out and claim the ball at the Welsh striker’s feet. He goes down and claims the penalty, but nothing doing on that occasion.
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49 mins: Good lord. Economides wipes out Bale with a challenge that most of the time would be a fairly straightforward yellow card, but this referee for reasons passing understanding doesn’t even deem it worthy of a free kick. He’s having a...creative evening, this official.
48 mins: Wales attack down the left as Ramsey feeds Bale on the flank, but despite a typically muscular run his cross is far too close to the keeper and the attack withers.
46 mins: We’re away. And Cyprus have a chance, as Nikolaou takes a dipping shot from range that Hennessey shovels away from goal, and Williams is there to mop up the pieces.
The ‘Comedy National Stereotypes Dept’ is apparently in charge of the PA, as ‘Zorba The Greek’ plays to accompany the players out for the second 45.
Half-time scores from across Europe. That Italy one is now half-time.
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8 - Aaron Ramsey lost possession more often than any other player in the first-half against Cyprus tonight. Testing.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 3, 2015
Well, a slightly curious half. Not an especially good game, hampered by a dry, divoty pitch, but Cyprus have caused Wales a few issues with their relentless aggression. Chris Coleman’s men haven’t been at their best by a long chalk, with Ramsey in particular looking poor, but Bale has made a few of those runs and they really should be ahead, an Edwards header ruled out for no apparent reason by a referee whose decisions have been rather eccentric, to say the least. Still, there’s nothing for the Welsh to get particularly nervous about. Yet.
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Half-time: Cyprus 0-0 Wales
Peeeeeeeeeeep. ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ plays on the PA.
44 mins: Turnaround in Brussels, as Manchester City’s latest trinket Kevin de Bruyne has made it 2-1 to Belgium against Bosnia-Herzegovina.
43 mins: Ooof, this most certainly hasn’t been Ramsey’s best game. Robson-Kanu does great work down the right, powering down the flank as they have a three-on-three counter, he cuts back to Ramsey but he takes a terrible touch and the ball dribbles through to the keeper. Possibly a little bobble on that, but still poor from Ramsey.
Ramsey is as frustrating to watch for Wales as he is for Arsenal at the moment. Poor decisions all around. #walesaway @NickMiller79
— Lindan (@Cthuloid) September 3, 2015
42 mins: This pitch really does have some significant bobbles on it. Davies plays a pass back to Hennessey and the ball virtually dog-legs on its way to the keeper. Fortunately for Wales it was far enough away to not be a particular problem.
40 mins: Demetriou gets down the right and his cross is blocked by Taylor’s arm, and it’s a free kick in the corner. Charalambides tries a pre-planned set pieces by cutting it back low to Makridis, but his shot goes over the bar.
38 mins: Another for Israel, as Munas Dabbur makes it 4-0 against Andorra.
36 mins: Bale gets a runnin’ again, feeding Ramsey on the left side of the area then goes for the return, but Ramsey’s pass hits the shins of defender Dossa Junior.
35 mins: Cyprus rather lucky to get away with one after some highly dangerous passing between keeper Giorgallides and Demetriou in defence.
34 mins: Spicy goings on in Amsterdam - no goals yet between the Netherlands and Iceland, but new captain Arjen Robben has gone off injured, while Bruno Martins Indi has been sent off.
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32 mins: Amazing that none of these Cypriot players have been booked yet. Antoniades is the latest to go in with an extremely robust challenge, although not necessarily a foul. One of their players will have his collar felt sooner or later.
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29 mins: Bale looks to be in again, as good work from Robson-Kanu sets the Real Madrid man clean on goal, but a quite brilliant sweeping challenge from Laifis denies him a shooting chance which he surely would’ve scored from. He had to get that exactly right, mind.
27 mins: GOA....no, it’s been disallowed. And that’s incredibly, incredibly harsh. Bale gets the ball on the right and whips over a quite brilliant, inswinging cross that Wolves midfielder Dave Edwards heads home via a deflection, but the referee blows up for a push. Presumably Robson-Kanu was the one penalised, but there was little-to-nothing in that. Wales should be ahead.
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26 mins: Israel are having fun against Andorra - 3-0 now, with Brighton’s Tomer Hemed notching the latest effort.
25 mins: Hal Robson-Kanu rather gets away with an extremely clumsy challenge that was closer to a rudimentary wrestling move, on Dossa Junior near the byline. A free kick, but nothing more.
23 mins: The Bosnia-Herzegovina lead didn’t last long - Manchester United centre-forward Marouane Fellaini has equalised for Belgium. 1-1 in Brussels.
22 mins: Another goal in Haifa, and Nir Bitton has made it Israel 2-0 Andorra.
21 mins: Good chance for Cyprus, as an iffy pass from Bale helps launch a counter-attack and Mytidis drives into the box from the right. He cuts the ball back to Nikolaou arriving from deep, but Williams is there again to clear.
19 mins: The turn of Cyprus to claim a penalty now, as Mytidis falls rather flamboyantly under a challenge from Williams, as they compete for a header. Looked like one of those that you wouldn’t have protested too loudly about had it been on the halfway line, but still a soft penalty.
17 mins: That goal in Belgium is obviously good news for Wales’ chances of winning the group, and it will be a significant boost if the Bosnians can hold on. Economides makes an efficient run in from the left, into the Welsh penalty area, but Williams, having clamed down a little from his early giddyness, tidies up.
15 mins: “I would hazard to say that it is the first time FIFA rankings have ever been used in any meaningful way, let alone witty banter,” notes Thomas Jaggers, of the Welsh chant recounted at 19.40. Meanwhile, a surprise from Brussels, as Edin Dzeko has given Bosnia-Herzegovina a 1-0 lead over Belgium.
13 mins: A few routine passes in their own half inspires a round of applause from the home crowd. Doesn’t take much to impress the good people of Nicosia, it seems.
10 mins: Another chance for Wales, and they should really be ahead. Ramsey wins a free kick with a driving run around 35 yards out. Bale shoots with one of those absurd dipping, swerving efforts from miles out which keeper Giorgallides saves with his feet, curiously, but pushes it straight into the path of Taylor, darting in to mop up the bits and pieces. Taylor shoots from about five yards out, but straight at the keeper. He really should have stuck that one away.
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8 mins: Appeal for a penalty from Wales as Ramsey slaps a cross straight at Demetriou from the left side of the box, but that would have been harsh, to say the least.
6 mins: That’s more like it for Wales. Bale makes his first run of any note through the defence, slaloming like an expert skier through the Cypriot defence and skipping past a few challenges, before feeding Ramsey on the edge of the box. The Arsenal man opens his body and curls a shot just wide of the far post, with Bale screaming for the return pass on his left.
4 mins: Mytidis makes some tracks into the area and it’s somewhat nervously defended by Wales, with Williams eventually smuggling it behind for a corner. Meanwhile, Israel have taken an early lead over Andorra, Eran Zahavi with the goal to make it 1-0.
3 mins: The pitch looks a little spicy. It’s quite dry and a bit bobbly, and that claims its first victim as a pass to Neil Taylor out on the left touchline hops up and strikes him on the hand. Free kick given.
1 min: And we’re away. Wales kick-off, and Ashley Williams attempts a rather inelegant hoy up field, which goes nowhere.
Lovely kit, the Welsh have. Advantage Wales.
Despite its association with rugby, it’s tough to beat ‘Land Of My Fathers’...
The players are out onto the pitch, and the away end looks jam-packed with giddy Welsh fans. And giddy they have every right to be.
Potentially the first time the Fifa rankings have been used in witty terrace banter, here, as pointed out by my colleague Niall McVeigh.
'We're higher than you, We're higher than you, You English b******ds, We're higher than you'. New ditty from '#walesaway
— Chris Wathan (@ChrisWathan) September 3, 2015
Meanwhile, this is rather heartening...
Will try to keep you posted on a few other scores from around the grounds this evening, notably Belgium v Bosnia-Herzegovina and Israel v Andorra, but you can keep track of them all here, if you like.
Also, your boy Nick Ames picked Wales as one of the ‘10 things to look out for’ this week in the Euro 2016 qualifiers. There are nine others, three written by an erudite, charming and some have even said dashing young hirsute man:
1) Wales ready themselves for a momentous week
It does not quite all come down to this – if there is a Paul Bodin moment then Wales will have two games in October in which to make amends – but an opportunity of such stature does not come around too often and Chris Coleman’s side are five days from achieving in style something for which a poor World Cup qualifying campaign offered little hope. Six points against Cyprus on Thursday and Israel on Sunday would send them to France and, while it is entirely plausible that the 180 minutes or so will include a bump or two, any repeat of the authority Wales have shown over the past year should get them over the line well ahead of what would otherwise be an awkward trip to Bosnia next month. And if it does, the atmosphere in Cardiff on Sunday will be one of those genuine “I was there” moments that football can do so well. Much like Scotland, mind you, they have ghosts from 2007 to bury. Wales were beaten 3-1 in Nicosia that October, a watershed moment after which their beleaguered then-manager John Toshack asked: “Did it look like they cared? It didn’t look like it to me.” It says something that, even if the champagne does have to be put on ice this week, nobody would dream of asking that question about the current crop.
Pre-game reading? For sure. Have a look at Stuart James talking to Chris Coleman, on how the Wales boss has turned things around:
The response to Coleman’s appointment was lukewarm at best. “A lot of people didn’t want me. I think there is also the Swansea-Cardiff thing, so a lot of people will never like me – I understand the geography behind it,” says Coleman, who was born in Swansea and played for the club. “It took me a lot of time as well to really man up and start doing things how I wanted to do it. I was doing things the way I thought Speedy wanted. I got burnt badly by that and slowly it has gone well since.”
The first few years were tough. There was a humiliating 6-1 defeat in Serbia in September 2012 and 12 months later Coleman was caught up in an embarrassment of a different kind after he lost his passport before a game in Macedonia and was unable to fly out with the team. Even this campaign started with boos when Andorra took the lead and Wales risked becoming the first team to fail to beat them in 45 competitive games until Gareth Bale – who else? – scored late on.
Everything, however, has spectacularly clicked into place for Coleman and Wales since, culminating in that memorable 1-0 victory over Belgium at a raucous Cardiff City Stadium in June, when Bale’s goal opened up a three-point lead at the top of the group and made a nation believe something truly special was happening.
One game has already been completed tonight, and it sounds like a barn-burner - it finished Azerbaijan 0-0 Croatia.
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It’s also worth noting that there are four full-backs in this starting XI. And of course another chap who started as a full-back, but has...graduated from there, rather.
It’s worth noting that Wales are on track to qualify for the European Championships and four of this starting XI play outside the top flight of their respective leagues. And furthermore, a couple of the remaining seven aren’t first-team regulars. It’s quite a(potential)n achievement, all told.
Team news
Cyprus
Giorgallides; Dossa Júnior, Demetriou, Antoniades, Laifis; Economides, Charalambides, Makridis, Nikolaou; Mytidis. Subs: Panayi, Negri, E. Charalambous, Sielis, Angeli, Englezou, M. Stylianou, Artymatas, Kastanos, Sotiriou, Kolokoudias.
Wales
Hennessey; Richards, Gunter, Ashley Williams, Davies, Taylor; Edwards, King, Ramsey; Bale, Robson-Kanu. Subs: Fon Williams, Ward, Fox, Collins, Jordan Williams, Henley, MacDonald, Ledley, Lawrence, Church, Vokes, Cotteril.
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
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Preamble
In the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, Wales finished second-bottom, winning three games and losing to last-placed Macedonia. They had a tough group, sure, facing Belgium, Croatia and Serbia, but it was a general performance of depressing familiarity and a decidedly limp exit from the tournament before it even began. The 6-1 battering at the hands of Serbia in September 2012 was a particular low-point for a team that has frankly had its share of pretty low points. Their attempt to get through to Euro 2012 was arguably even worse, finishing in the same position but in a group that England won, and behind Montenegro and Switzerland.
And yet now. Now they’re ranked ninth in the world and are on the verge of making it to their first major tournament since 1958. Granted, the new qualification set-up has made it rather easier for teams to make it through to France 2016, but Wales have a puncher’s chance of qualifying in top spot, this negating any sneers that they might only have made it thanks to the benevolence of Uefa.
This is of course the closest they have come to a major tournament since 1993, when Paul Bodin’s penalty miss, voted by the Observer Sport Monthly as the 46th most heart-breaking moment in the history of sport, deprived them of a place at the 1994 World Cup. That night, a quite remarkable evening of sporting tragedy and recriminations, is recounted in this equally remarkable article by Rob Smyth in 2012:
At first there was a feeling of disbelief, of numbness,” said Yorath, who never managed Wales again. Within a year, Wales were a rabble, losing in Moldova and being thrashed 5-0 in Georgia. “It was only at about four in the morning in my hotel room that I sat down and started crying. I knew it had gone. All that work had been for nothing.”
Two more wins will do it. If they beat Cyprus tonight then Israel on Sunday at a Cardiff City Stadium that is likely to be vibrating at the speed of light, they’re there, beating a path to Saint-Denis. It’s no wonder Chris Coleman’s eyes have been moistening at the corners a little bit:
I don’t actually think about going down in history. I only allow myself to think what it would be like if we were playing in a full house at the Stade de France,” Coleman says. “I was out there watching Belgium beat France and I thought: ‘What I would give to be here with Wales.’ We know what our fans are like. We would take thousands. I do think like that and I can’t help it. I am a human being and you can’t help but imagine what it would be like.”
It won’t be a stroll tonight, though. It’s hot in Nicosia - so hot, in fact, that the high for the day was 37 degrees Celsius (that’s 99 Fahrenheit in old money), and even at the time of writing, when it’s cooled down a bit, the mercury has nudged to 30 degrees. Sweat aplenty, then. Add to that the absence of usual central midfield pair Joe Ledley and Joe Allen, and this is likely to be a tricksy affair. Although with that beard and this heat, it’s probably for the best that Ledley isn’t involved. Think of the matting.
It’s close, though. Really, very close. Will they get over the line? We shall see. Stick around.
Kick-off: 19.45 BST
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