Bale Shines As Wales Edge Closer To Euro Last 16
17 June, 2021
Turkey 0-2 Wales
Wales edge closer to a spot in the EURO 2020 knockout stages after defeating Turkey 2-0 on Wednesday evening.
Wales must have taken the lead on six minutes when Gareth Bale played in Aaron Ramsey, who eliminated one defender before seeing his close-range strike saved by Ugurcan Cakir.
It was an end-to-end affair early on, with Burak Yilmaz going close minutes later after seeing his first-time strike deflect inches wide of the upright.
Another opening fell to Ramsey on 23 minutes after being slipped through on goal, however the Welsh midfielder blazed outrageous with only Cakir to beat in the box.
The Welsh were quite vulnerable at set-pieces in the draw with Switzerland and were practically punish against on thirty minutes but Joe Morrel was readily available to clear Kaan Ayhan's header off the line.
However, Wales eventually made their dominance count as Bale's excellent pass found Ramsey, who manipulated on the chest before firing at night on-rushing Cakir.
The Turks could have found themselves level ten minutes in to the second half when the ball fell kindly to Yilmaz from a corner however the striker volleyed from close range.
Wales were then awarded a penalty on the hour mark when Zeki Celik brought down Bale, who took responsibility but sent his spot-kick well over the crossbar.
After waves of Turkish attacks, Bale made up for the penalty miss as he turned provider once more, this time selecting Connor Roberts for the close-range finish to summary three points.
Russia 1-0 Finland
Russia claimed their first win in Group B at EURO 2020 after defeating Finland 1-0 on Wednesday afternoon.
Finland had the ball in the rear of the net after just 3 minutes when Joel Pojhanpalo sent a fine header in to the back of the net from Jukka Ratiala's cross, however the strike was eliminated for offside by the VAR.
Russia practically went ahead on 14 minutes as Aleksey Miranchuk saw his curling effort crash against the upright with goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky flat-footed.
The Russians were then forced into a change midway through the first, just as the previous game, as Mario Fernandes was taken off after an awkward fall and replaced by Vyacheslav Karavaev.
With the first half seemingly seeking to end scoreless, Russia broke the deadlock in the next minute of time added on as Aleksey Miranchuk exchanged passes with Artem Dzuyba before positioning the ball in to the top corner.
With the Russians pushing for another goal, Hradecky came to Finland's rescue with a excellent one-hand save to keep out Kuzyaev's curling effort which look destined for underneath corner on 70 minutes.
Finland were not able to trouble before 89th minute when Arajuuri got on the end of Daniel O’Shaughnessy's cross but he headed over as Russia held on for the win.
Source: www.soccerladuma.co.za