A triplet by Gareth Bale, who scored the winning goal in added time, gave the three points against Belarus to Wales (2-3) that encouraged their qualifying path to the World Cup in Qatar.
Robert Page’s painting ended his crisis. He had three games without winning. But Bale’s desperate goal in the last action of the game raises his optimism. It is now one point behind the Czech Republic, second in Group E, and four behind the leader, Belgium.
The clash had to be played in Kazan, without an audience, due to the sanctions imposed on the Belarusian government of Aleksandr Lukashenko that prevented Wales from flying to Belarus.
The clash, however, was more complicated than the Welsh team expected despite the fact that after six minutes a foul inside the goal area of Sergey Chernik was punished with a penalty that Bale transformed.
Belarus, however, reacted and Half an hour later he found his chance after a mistake by Chris Gunter that resulted in a penalty for the home team. Vitaly Lisakovich did not miss from eleven meters.
The situation worsened for Page’s team, who turned on Chernik’s goal but left numerous spaces in defense and invited his rival to execute dangerous counterattacks. That was how the second Belarusian goal arrived. Lisakovich, the best local footballer, took the ball to Pavel Sedko who beat Dany Ward.
Wales found themselves with the scoreboard against before the break. After the intermission he locked up his rival who could sentence the clash in some action against him.
Page’s team found some relief twenty minutes from time thanks to another penalty, this time from Max Ebong. Bale did not fail either and put the tie in the marker.
The Real Madrid player was able to score on several occasions, especially on a free kick that brushed the post. But Belarus also had a chance to score in a heads-up from Lisakovich.
But it was about the end of the game when a revolt action in the local area ended with the ball in the boots of Gareth Bale, who fired. Chernik couldn’t catch the ball, which hit the net.
