And here is David Hytner’s match report:
Wales are in the quarter-finals of the European Championship, where they will play Hungary or Belgium on Friday night. It was a poor game, yet constantly engaging because of what it meant to both teams. Northern Ireland were probably the better team, and showed again that they are wonderfully coached by Michael O’Neill. But this time the individual trumped the team: Gareth Bale created the decisive own-goal from Gareth McAuley with a sensational cross.
Ashley Williams summed up Wales’ defiance by finishing the match with a limp shoulder. He must be a doubt for Friday, but that’s something to worry about later. Wales are in the quarter-finals of the European Championship, and all of them will be starring in documentaries in 2041 and 2066. Commiserations to an admirable Northern Ireland side and congratulations to Wales, whose fans are going to stir tomorrow with the happiest hangover of their lives. Thanks for your company, night!
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Full time: Wales 1-0 Northern Ireland
Davis swings it in, Allen clears; McGinn crosses, it’s deflected behind for a corner. The keeper comes up, but Bale heads the corner clear and the final whistle is blown!
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90+3 min McGinn tries to run Neil Taylor, who blocks the cross. It’ll be another long theow from McGinnis, right into the six-yard box. Hennessey punches it away excellently, but then Ramsey fouls Davis and is booked for kicking the ball away. This is it, a free-kick on the right-wing, and Northern Ireland’s last chance.
90+2 min Corry Evans fouls Robson-Kanu 40 yards from goal, which wastes around 40 seconds for Wales. This is it for Northern Ireland.
90 min Hennessey charges out to calmly claim a long throw. There will be four minutes of added time.
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89 min Lafferty’s clever flick finds Davis just inside the box, but Allen tracks his run superbly and clears with the aid of Ashley Williams.
87 min I always said Ashley Williams was the new Beckenbauer. (Beckenbauer played extra-time of the 1970 World Cup semi-final in a sling because of a shoulder injury.)
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86 min Robson-Kanu beats the outrushing McGovern to a bouncing ball just inside the area, but he can only head the ball out of play. Ashley Williams is struggling after the collision with Jonny Williams. He has done some serious damage to his left shoulder.
James Collins is ready but Williams wants to continue, even though he is holding his left shoulder by his side. This is incredible courage, and possibly foolish.
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85 min “I don’t want to descend into empty cliches,” says Matt Dony, “but, (clears throat) It’s a results business, Rob. They might not be playing with the skill and panache of other teams, but if Wales go through, 3 million of us will not care in the slightest. I do get the point, but I don’t care if neutrals enjoy the game, as long as Wales get through. None of us enjoyed watching Greece grind and fluke their way to Euro 2004, but the records show they were champions. And that’s what matters.”
Oh I completely agree. You have to take each case on its merits but generally the underdogs should be cut a lot more slack when it comes to entertainment. Folk who support, say, Manchester United and England can’t really understand.
83 min Northern Ireland make their last change, with the huge centre-forward Josh Magennis replacing the centre-back and own-goalscorer McAuley.
82 min Pundits often get quite smug when the team trumps the individual, as with Italy’s win over Belgium, so it’s only fair to point out when the opposite happens. Northern Ireland have played excellently here, but a moment of brilliance from Gareth Bale seems to have decided the game.
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81 min A nasty collision between Ashley and Jonny Williams prompts Martin Atkinson to stop play even though Northern Ireland are on the attack. It was the right decision. It didn’t look great at first, with Jonny Williams lying face down, but he seems to be okay now.
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79 min Oliver Norwood is replaced by Niall McGinn for Northern Ireland.
78 min Poor Gareth McAuley. Thing is, he took the right option. The alternative was to leave it and let Robson-Kanu score; had he done that he would have rightly been slaughtered. It was an instinctive decision, and he was right to stretch for the ball in the hope it was deflect over the bar.
77 min GET WILL GRIGG ON.
GOAL! Wales 1-0 Northern Ireland (McAuley own goal 75)
Ramsey played the ball left to Bale, who smashed a devastating low cross into the six-yard box. The stretching McAuley had to go for it, with Robson-Kanu behind him, and he could only stab it into his own net from four yards. It was a stunning cross from Bale, and I’m not sure McAuley could have done anything differently.
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74 min Bale has been livelier in the last five minutes, and there is an increasing sense that Wales are going to nick this. And they’ve scored!
73 min “Can we just vote for both these teams to LEAVE and have both Italy and Spain go through to the last eight?” says Gary Naylor. “I mean, it is a week for bonkers decisions after all.”
72 min “To answer Matt Dony’s pithy question, no I don’t work for Barcelona,” says Jonathan Francis. “And in fact, one of my favorite matches was Jose’s ten-man Inter defending like savants at the Camp Nou in 2010. So Matt is absolutely right that there is more than one ideal way to play football; I just disagree that “poorly” should be included in that list.”
71 min Norwood drills an excellent long pass to Lafferty, who tries to go round the outside of Chester on the left of the box. Chester does brilliantly to get between Lafferty and the ball before turning calmly to run the ball away.
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69 min Northern Ireland’s first substitution is a straight swap, Conor Washington for Jamie Ward.
69 min “Hello again,” says Phil West. “I’d like to point out that I am delighted to see teams like Albania, N. Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, and Wales playing at the Euros. There will be so many stars of the future from these countries who will look back and say they were inspired by this tournament. I just think this game is total merde, as the locals say.”
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68 min
Dear everyone...
67 min Davis is booked for clumping Bale.
65 min “I enjoyed the 2003 Champions League Final,” says John Davis. “It was a pound a pint in the students’ union bar. Can’t remember the game.” I wish that I too could expunge that game from my memory for a tenner.
64 min Ramsey has been the best player on the pitch since half-time, really asserting himself both with and without the ball.
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63 min Imagine if Will Grigg scored the winner. What a story that would be – especially as he’s not even on the pitch. Honk.
62 min Another Wales substitution: the lively Jonny Williams replaces Joe Ledley. Ramsey will drop into Ledley’s place.
In tribute to Northern Ireland, I quickly wrote this in the half-time break.
60 min “Does Jonathan Francis work for Barcelona?” says Matt Dony. “I’m sorry this game isn’t being played to his liking. But, yknow, there’s more than one way to play football. I mean, some of us even enjoyed the 2003 Champions League final.”
You’ve taken the joke too far with that last sentence. That’s out of order.
59 min Norwood drills a very deep corner towards Dallas, who has the run on Gunter but misjudges the flight of the ball. The imagination and variety of Northern Ireland’s set pieces is exceptional.
58 min Bale crunches the ball over the wall, and McGovern springs to his left to make a good save. It wasn’t in the corner but it was dipping sharply. Northern Ireland break, and Taylor is booked for clattering Ward.
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57 min Ramsey is starting to influence the game. A crossfield pass to the right finds Gunter, who plays it back to Bale. He comes infield, waits for the challenge of Norwood and goes over 25 yards from goal. It was a foul, even if Bale was looking for it, and it’s in a perfect position for him.
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57 min “The discussion about quality reminds me of Eddie the Eagle,” says Bjorn Arvidsson. “I always found it wonderful that he was competing; in the true spirit of human competition. We are seeing, right now, the 16 best teams in Europe (at this moment) competing for the Crown of Europe. What could possibly be wrong with that?”
56 min Norwood’s long-range shot is comfortably saved by Hennessey.
55 min That was Vokes’s last touch, and he’s replaced by Hal Robson-Kanu.
53 min Vokes, who will presumably be coming off for Robson-Kanu, heads wide after a stunning outswinging cross from Ramsey on the right. It wasn’t an easy header – he was 15 yards from goal – but he was clear of the last defender and had a running jump.
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53 min Northern Ireland have undoubtedly been the better side, and Wales are about to bring on Hal Robson-Kanu in an attempt to change that.
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51 min “Hello Rob!” says Phil West. “Normally about this time someone says ‘all this game needs is a goal’. IMHO all this game needs is the final whistle.”
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50 min Northern Ireland have made a very fast start to the second half, and Lafferty wins a free-kick 30 yards from goal on the left. It’s another cute, training-ground set piece, with the ball zig-zagging to the other side of the field before Evans stands up a fine cross that is bravely headed away by Davies.
49 min Dallas, who has already been booked, is penalised near the halfway line. Martin Atkinson does not issue a second yellow, because Martin Atkinson is all-powerful. I think it was the right decision, though you could make a case both ways.
49 min “Yes, football is about more than quality on the pitch, but the knockout rounds of the Euros are not,” writes Jonathan Francis. “No neutral wants to watch Sunderland v. West Brom in the Champions League round of 16, and no neutral wants to watch their national equivalents play 120 minutes in the Euros. It was never the expansion to 24 in the group stages that was going to be the problem, but allowing 16 advance to the knockout, regardless of how passionate the support in the stands is.”
I can understand that argument, but I completely disagree.
48 min “Bing Bong?” says Andrew Benton. “Has the ref got a glockenspiel? More European than a whistle, I suppose. Why not equip refs with bagpipes instead, would make for much more interesting games.”
Anyone who is booked should have a recorder played in their ear for 30 seconds.
47 min “Are you lenient on Ramsey because you like him too much?” says Gaurav Pandit. “His offside was a stupid thing to do - the ball may have gone in, the goalkeeper was scrambling and not entirely in control of the ball at that time.”
Full disclosure: Aaron Ramsey is my lover.
46 min Bing bong! Northern Ireland begin the second half, kicking from left to right.
Half-time reading
Alan Shearer’s verdict on BBC One.
“The standard of football has been terrible.”
See, they got Shearer as well.
Half time: Wales 0-0 Northern Ireland
Bing bong! That’s half time. There haven’t been many chances, partly because both teams want to play on the counter-attack. But it’s been tactically interesting – no, honestly – and Northern Ireland will be really pleased with how it’s gone. See you in 10 minutes.
44 min Dallas is booked for a bad sliding foul on Bale, and will miss the quarter-final if Northern Ireland get there. Have a word with him.
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42 min “This feels like warching Stoke play WBA at the end of August,” says James Pavitt. “Low quality, mildly diverting, but hardly what you’d expect from the last 16 of the Euros.”
I know what you mean, but football is about so much more than quality. At some point in the last decade, British football fans became fearful snobs. (I’ve been as guilty of this as anyone, so I’m not finger-pointing.) Northern Ireland in particular have played exceptionally well in the circumstances.
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40 min Northern Ireland do so much set-piece work on the training ground. This corner is hit low towards the near post, where Ward runs away from goal and helps it on its way across the box. It’s cleared by a Wales defender, but it was neatly done. Ward had more time than he realised because nobody had followed him.
40 min Gunter concedes a needless free-kick just outside the area on the left wing. Northern Ireland are dangerous from set-pieces, and Norwood’s excellent inswinger is headed behind by Davies under considerable pressure. Desperate but excellent defending.
39 min “Dear Rob,” says Robert Wilson. “I was behind the goal in Lyon and cracked a rib during the celebrations for the 2nd goal against Ukraine (better than the bloke in front of me who lost it so badly he actually started biting his mates). Consequently, I’m rather anxious about the health and welfare of the unaccustomed-to-success Norn Iron fans. I can’t lose tonight anyway. If Wales win, I will immediately become Welsh. Celtic identity is so lovely and flexible that way.”
37 min Hughes cracks an excellent cross to the far post, where Gunter does very well to head away with Dallas lumbering towards him like a slasher-movie villain.
36 min Here’s Hubert O’Hearn. “This game shows there’s a big difference in quality resulting from an attitude of ‘This is our chance! Let’s take it!’ as opposed to here, where we have ‘This is our chance! Nobody screw it up!’.”
I know what you mean, though I think that’s a bit harsh. That was certainly evident for most of the extra-time between Poland and Switzerland, though, and it’ll be the same here if the game goes that far.
35 min “Very good pressing by Norn Iron,” says Colin Livingstone. “Sorry.”
34 min Ledley plays a nice through pass to Vokes, who is jockeyed and then dispossessed by Jonny Evans. Terrific defending.
31 min Lafferty tries to run Chester, who calmly wins the ball and launches a Welsh counter-attack. After a good pass from Bale, Gunter’s cross is headed clear to Taylor, whose low shot is blocked. Both teams look far more comfortable playing on the break.
27 min “Re: 14 minutes, Wales’s qualifying record confirms that impression, their worst performances were against Andorra and, I think, Cyprus,” says David Wall. “I wonder if that shows that Coleman’s greatest achievement isn’t finding an effective formation and style (Wales have some pretty decent players in most positions, and better than those available to many other countries even if not all household names), but rather creating a collective self-deception so they can still think of themselves as underdogs when they’re not. After all, for many of those matches during qualifying FIFA were ranking them in or around the best 10 teams in the world (which they didn’t hesitate to talk about when it suited them, of course).”
It’s certainly happened in the past, most recently with Leicester. Same with the contrived siege mentality, a popular tactic of some of the greatest managers of all time.
26 min To the considerable delight of the Northern Ireland fans, Bale drags a shot well wide of the far post from 25 yards.
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25 min Wales have had 64 per cent possession, yet Northern Ireland will be happier with the first 25 minutes. Jonny Evans’ Unsworth-style reacher is met by the head of Lafferty, who towers over Davies and lobs a header over the bar from 15 yards.
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22 min That’s a fine effort from Jamie Ward, a rising drive from 25 yards that is tipped over by the leaping Hennessey. It was central, and therefore relatively comfortable for the keeper, but it was very well struck. Northern Ireland have been excellent so far, really calm and purposeful.
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21 min Wales are just starting to impose themselves. Ramsey nutmegs Jonny Evans cleverly and then falls over; Martin Atkinson ignores him, because Martin Atkinson can.
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20 min Here’s Simon McMahon, running with the happy mood of this unique occasion: “I hope Kyle Lafferty is made to watch the footage of the time he got Charlie Mulgrew sent off at Ibrox for a ‘head butt’ before every game he plays.”
19 min Aaron Ramsey has a goal disallowed for offside. Vokes rose superbly at the far post to head a left-wing cross whence it came, and Ramsey lobbed it over McGovertn from a couple of yards. He was comfortably offside. Vokes’ header was on target anyway, though I suspect McGovern had it covered.
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Robbie Savage definitely has a photo of Gareth Bale in every room of his house.
— Jordan (@FourFourJordan) June 25, 2016
14 min Wales look like a team who aren’t used to being favourites. They aren’t playing terribly, just a little scruffily.
Out of interest ... Is Will Grigg any good at football ??
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) June 25, 2016
12 min Northern Ireland have started really well, with some confident passing. The game is starting to open up: Bale’s inswinging cross from the right just evades Ramsey, who tried a kind of scorpion flick at the near post.
10 min The first chance of the match goes to Northern Ireland. Ledley loses the ball high up the pitch and Ireland break well, with a series of short passes culminating in a left-footed shot from the edge of the box by Dallas that is palmed round by Henneessey at the near post.
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6 min Northern Ireland appear to be playing two up, with Jamie Ward partnering Lafferty. Ward gets to a loose ball a split-second before Ashley Williams and visits the turf as punishment for his impudence. Nothing comes from the resulting free-kick.
4 min “Rob, mate...” begins Michael Witheford. “I’ve found a stream somehow so won’t need you tonight. All the best though. Like I care now....bahahaha. Your good friend.”
No dramas blud.
3 min You’d expect Wales to dominate possession, and that’s been the case so far. The last man Jonny Evans, under pressure from both Gareth Bale and Gareth Bale’s aura, heads calmly back to McGovern.
2 min “If Wales haven’t qualified for a major tournament since ‘58,” says Mark Lannen, “how were they in the quarterfinals of the Euros in ‘76?”
There were only four teams in the finals of Euro 76. Wales reached the last eight before losing to Yugoslavia. But Uefa still calls it the quarter-finals, and Uefa’s word is gospel in my house.
1 min Peep peep! Wales, in red, kick off from left to right. Northern Ireland are in their white change strip. This is the first meeting between two British sides in the knockout stage of a major championship.
Bing bong! It’s time for kick-off.
“Anthems,” says Simon McMahon. “1-0 to Wales already.”
More like 10-9. They were both magnificent, but Wales’ was off the scale.
“Will Grigg’s on ... the bench,” says Andy Gordon. “Again. If he doesn’t get to play, he could help by painting a George Best mural on the gable end of McGovern’s goal netting.”
Thirty-four years ago today, Mal Donaghy was sent off.
Gareth Bale on the "red wall", why #euro2016 is no personal crusade, & a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with #wal: https://t.co/gSXuyukjsR
— Stuart James (@StuartJamesGNM) June 25, 2016
In other news
Poland are hanging on for penalties in Saint-Etienne, where Xherdan Shaqiri scored one of the all-time-great scissor-kicks for Switzerland. Gregg Bakowski has the latest.
24 June 2016 was a great day for Europe. Eric made this video.
Team news
This won’t detain you for long. Wales are unchanged; Northern Ireland bring in Kyle Lafferty for Conor Washington.
Wales (3-4-1-2) Hennessey; Chester, A Williams, Davies; Gunter, Allen, Ledley, Taylor; Ramsey; Bale, Vokes.
Northern Ireland (5-3-2) McGovern; Hughes, McAuley, Cathcart, J Evans, Dallas; Davis, C Evans, Norwood; Ward, Lafferty.
Referee Martin Atkinson (England).
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Preamble
Hello. There are many ways to judge the quality of a tournament – goals per game, number of great matches, your own experience and so on – but one of the most underappreciated is the quality and charm of the stories. That’s why Italia 90 was so great, and why Euro 2016 has been much more enjoyable than a miserable average of 1.92 goals per game would suggest. The joy of the underdog has defined the tournament so far, with the success of Wales, the two Irelands, Slovakia, Albania, Iceland and Hungary, Poland and Switzerland redeeming an otherwise modest group stage.
The 24-team-Eurosceptics were only partially right. It is probably a bad thing in the long run – elite competitions should be just that – but the novelty of so many new teams in this tournament has been a beautiful, beautiful thing. There is little of the grouchy entitlement of the established teams, just innocent enthusiasm and infectious charm. Thousands of supporters – and hundreds of players – will look back on this as the time of their ‘kin lives.
For some, the best is yet to come. Picture this: in a few hours’ time, either Wales or Northern Ireland will be in the last eight of the European Championship. The last eight. The last eight. The last eight. The last eight. Wales have not reached that stage since 1976; Northern Ireland have never done so. The winners will play Belgium or Hungary in Lille on Friday night, knowing that 25 June 2016 has already gone down in history.
Kick off is at 5pm in Cardiff and Belfast, 6pm in Paris.
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