Daniel James was Wales’ goal-scoring hero on Sunday as they launched their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign with a 1-0 win over Slovakia in Cardiff.
Swansea City 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.”
Photo: Reuters
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 defense. 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 said.
Slovakia were unchanged after beating Hungary 2-0 in their opening qualifier on Thursday last week and Wales manager Ryan Giggs, who made 11 changes from Wednesday last week’s 1-0 friendly victory over Trinidad and Tobago, was delighted by the way his side had coped.
“It’s not easy. I tried to play it down because I knew other teams played first, but you do feel the pressure,” Giggs said. “In the first half we showed real composure. 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.”
Wales’ next two qualifiers are away fixtures against Croatia and Hungary on June 8 and June 11 respectively.
Also on Sunday, it was:
‧ N Ireland 2, Belarus 1
‧ Hungary 2, Croatia 1
‧ Israel 4, Austria 2
‧ Poland 2, Latvia 0
‧ Slovenia 1, Macedonia 1
‧ Kazakhstan 0, Russia 4
‧ San Marino 0, Scotland 2
‧ Cyprus 0, Belgium 2
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but