DAN AND DUSTED
One small sidestep from Bale and one giant leap from James – now Wales suddenly have lift-off in their World Cup qualifying campaign
DAN JAMES powered in a dramatic late header to settle this qualifier on a stormy night in Cardiff that saw both sides finish with 10 men.
Manchester United winger James may be small in stature but he rose superbly to head in his third international goal in the 81st minute and kill off the Czechs. The goal, carved out by a wicked left-wing cross from skipper Gareth Bale, puts Wales on three points from two tough opening fixtures in Group E.
The Czechs, now on four points after three matches, had Patrik Schick sent off after a pushing Connor Roberts to the ground in a goalmouth snarl-up.
Wales and Bale were initially unable to capitalise on Schick’s dismissal early in the second half. And the game looked set for stalemate when Roberts ended up taking an early bath 14 minutes from time after Tomas Soucek made a meal of his aerial challenge.
But some brilliance from Bale on the flank teed up James, who still had a lot of work to do to find the back of the net.
Victory boosts caretaker Rob Page’s prospects of succeeding absent boss Ryan Giggs, who is on police bail. And it keeps Wales firmly in the hunt for second place in the group, assuming Belgium win it (last night they beat Belarus 8-0).
The Czech team included Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela despite police investigating an alleged racist row involving him and Rangers star Glen Kamara earlier this month at Ibrox.
Unlike Wales, the Czechs opted not to take the knee before kick-off and instead pointed to the UEFA Respect inscription on the sleeve of their shirts.
After thumping Estonia 6-2 and drawing with Belgium, the Czechs arrived in good form. And they made a positive start as Jakub Jankto had an early shot which Danny Ward was able to gather at the second attempt. But the visitors nearly gave Harry Wilson a chance when Ondrej Celustka’s slow back-pass had goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik racing off his line to clear.
Yet the Czechs remained the more dangerous side as Jankto sent two further efforts wide in the opening 15 minutes. Wales, slowly finding their rhythm, went closest to opening the
scoring in the 36th minute. Neco Williams swung over a superb inswinging cross from the left which Bale met at the back post on the volley.
A goal looked certain but the Real Madrid man, on loan at Spurs, did not catch it cleanly and his effort bounced up for Vaclik to make a superb reaction save.
Wales appealed in vain for a penalty before the break when James went to ground in the box after a Soucek challenge.
Schick was sent off early in the second half but Wales found it hard to take advantage.
In fact they needed a superb covering tackle by James Lawrence to clear from Lukas Provod, who had beaten Ward after latching on to Vladimir Darida’s pass.
And it looked grim when Roberts was rather harshly sent off for a second yellow card.
Bale was unable to add to his 33 international goals and it is now nine Wales games without scoring for him since since October 2019. But the Real Madrid ace provided a moment of pure quality with a sidestep and cross to tee up James to settle the clash.
The Czechs pushed for a late equaliser and Wales were grateful to Joe Rodon, who made a superb block in stoppage time to stop a Celustka shot.