James the hero as Wales start Euro qualifiers with Slovakia win

CARDIFF, United Kingdom: Daniel James was Wales’ goalscoring hero as they launched their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign with a 1- 0 win over Slovakia in Cardiff on Sunday.

Swansea winger James, making his first competitive start for Wales, struck in just the fifth minute with a goal that ultimately saw the hosts to victory.

“It was a good start after we got that early goal,” James told Sky Sports. “From then on, we had to dig in. The only thing I had in my head was to shoot and luckily it went in.”

Wales star Gareth Bale, captaining the side in place of benched regular skipper Ashley Williams, added: “Everyone put in a shift today.

“We built our success off a good solid defence. We work hard in units. We always knew we could nick a goal.

“In the second half we came under a lot of pressure but we started the game well, got the early goal then shut up shop and we know how to do that,” the Real Madrid forward insisted.

Slovakia were unchanged after beating Hungary 2- 0 in their opening qualifier on Thursday and Wales manager Ryan Giggs, who made 11 changes from Wednesday’s 1- 0 friendly victory over Trinidad and Tobago, was delighted by the way his side had coped after their Group E rivals had played earlier in the week.

“It’s not easy. I tried to play it down because I knew other teams played first but you do feel the pressure,” he said.

“In the first half we showed real composure.

Manchester United great Giggs added: “We rode our luck a little bit in the second half and I thought we could have scored a few more in the first but some of the play was fantastic, paired with great determination.”

The Cardiff City Stadium was bathed in sunshine and Wales made an equally bright start.

Harry Wilson and David Brooks combined well down the right but any threat seemed to end when Brooks’ pass went straight to Slovakia defender Peter Pekarik. But Pekarik was then dispossessed on the edge of the box by the 21year- old James, who then shot powerfully past Newcast le goalkeeper Martin Dubravka to fire Wales in front. — AFP