THAT’S MOORE T HAN TIDY... age’s men heading in
Striker Kieffer rises to the occasion and stopper Ward keeps P
KIEFFER MOORE was Wales’ goal hero – but keeper Danny Ward was arguably the real saviour.
Wales’ usual superstars such as Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey struggled to have much impact in the heat in Baku.
They toiled as Switzerland dominated possession and arguably should have blown Wales away.
But Ward was in superb form with four crucial saves after getting the nod over Wayne Hennessey from boss Rob Page.
And, in 6ft 5in Cardiff frontman Moore, Wales possess a huge aerial threat that no team will relish facing at this Euros. Not for the first time,
Moore ended up bloodied and bandaged in a Wales shirt as he gave everything.
He and Wales were rewarded in the 74th minute by his headed equaliser from a well-worked short corner routine.
It cancelled out Breel Embolo’s opener as Switzerland took a deserved lead.
But dogged Wales improved and battled to a vital point in Group A ahead of playing Turkey in Baku on Wednesday, when Page’s men will aim to play better.
Page (right), who saw VAR rule out a potential late Swiss winner for offside, reflected: “I’m so proud of the players, they had to dig deep towards the end.
“We had a little bit of lady luck with the offside as well, but that’s the start we’re after.
“I wanted a positive performance and I certainly got that.
“We knew Switzerland were going to have a lot of the ball so we had to be solid and well organised defensively and I thought we did that.
“To show the endeavour and come back into it is credit to the players.
“There are aspects of the performance I would like to work on. But I thought Wardy was outstanding.
“He was excellent along with many others in the team.
“It is disappointing we can’t have more Welsh supporters here, but we heard the roar when the equaliser hit the back of the net.”
Moore led the line, despite only starting twice in Wales’ previous eight games.
He signalled his presence in the 15th minute with a superb header from Dan James’ cross from the left, which Yann Sommer saved.
But it was Wales’ only clear chance in the first half as Ward used his legs to keep out Fabian Schar’s clever flick from Xherdan Shaqiri’s corner. Switzerland, ran the world, dominated, Seferovic’s finishing was
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Embolo was Wales’ chief tormentor thoughout with his pace and direct running as he nearly teed up a second only for Kevin Mbabu to somehow scuff wide.
Yet Wales levelled with just their second effort on target.
A clever corner routine saw Morrell curl the ball in from the right and Moore did superbly to get across his marker and head into the far corner.
The Dragons then survived a late scare four minutes from time when sub Mario Gavranovic volleyed in Embolo’s header. But VAR ruled it out and judging by Gavranovic’s emphatic finish, Wales were perhaps fortunate he did not start after his hattrick in the last friendly against Liechtenstein.
The drama was not over, however, as Ward still needed to make another decent save in the last minute from Embolo’s backpost header.
Swiss boss Petrovic said: “We did everything we could to get the victory, but we weren’t clinical enough.”