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By Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales in Cardiff City Stadium
Gareth Bale rescued Wales from a home draw against Azerbaijan as his goal snatched victory to present their stuttering bid to qualify for Euro 2020 a lift.
Ryan Giggs’ facet shot a lead in funny fashion as before moving beyond a wrong-footed Salahat Agayev in the Azerbaijan purpose the ball looped from a Bale shot that was preoccupied and hit an unsuspecting Pavlo Pashayev.
But that papered over the cracks of a display from Wales, who surrendered a gloomy equaliser as Neil Taylor gave away the ball and watched Mahir Emreli dent on the rebound after Wayne Hennessey could only parry his effort that was weak.
But with a little more than five seconds left, Wales captain and all-time leading goalscorer Bale came to their rescue once more because he headed in from close range, via the crossbar, to spark wild parties which showed how close the hosts had come to blowing off their chances of qualifying for Euro 2020.
Wales is lifted by the result up to next in Group E – flat on six points with all fourth-placed Slovakia – while the thumping of Croatia win from Slovakia sees the World Cup finalists join leaders Hungary on eight factors.
Back-to-back defeats in June against Croatia and Hungary – the first time Wales had dropped qualifiers for decades – had left little room for error to Giggs’ side for the remainder of this campaign.
The director himself confessed Wales would have to”win nearly every game today”, beginning with success here against a lowly Azerbaijan side who had never won a European Championship qualifier from your home.
Wales struggled to impose themselves despite being 85 areas above their opponents in the world ranks.
It was fitting, therefore, that the opening goal needs to arrive at conditions that are farcical that are such.
Pashayev was not even looking at the ball when it struck him across the side of his head before dribbling to the internet and dropped down from a wonderful height.
Wales could laugh in their good fortune, however it was a diversion from their failure to create scoring opportunities against weak resistance.
Bale looked livelier than he’d done in June but, despite providing Tom Lawrence with a couple sights on target, the Derby completing lacked the necessary cutting edge.
Wales were not too worried. Provided that success was stable, there was expectation A performance could have improved spirits but.
When Azerbaijan struck to stun the Cardiff City Stadium but that changed after one hour.
Taylor made the first error giving away possession, and following a through-ball from Ramil Sheydaev Taylor nor Chris Mepham could catch Emreli, who capitalised on the inability of Hennessey.
A sense of foreboding rippled round the floor. Was this a return to the bad old days for Wales?
Despite the tension that was palpable, the house fans refused to think and they roared in their side in the closing stages.
Wales hauled in a desperate hunt for a target and, together with Azerbaijan struggling to clear after Joe Allen’s deflected shot pin-balled around the box, Bale increased superbly to venture in off the bar to save Welsh blushes.
It was always likely Bale would be Wales’ saviour, since he was in Andorra at 2014 and again in Cyprus a year.
He’s an icon of Welsh soccer who is capable of climbing to the huge occasions as he’s dragging his group off the canvass.
This was true of the latter, and there was a portion of salvation for Bale given his summer for club and country.
In Junehe also cut a figure as Wales were defeated in Croatia and Hungary while speculation raged about his Real Madrid future.
Having not played for six weeks, Bale’s lethargic body language spoke of a discontent shaped in Spain, where he was marginalised by manager Zinedine Zidane and appeared set for a move to the Chinese Super League.
However, the collapse of the transfer and subsequent injuries to players such as Eden Hazard motivated a transformation from Bale’s standing in the club since he score and began the first three league matches of the season of Real.
Those were his first goals since March and they seemed to energise Bale against Azerbaijan. He awakened Wales’ attack and ran back to help his defenders.
His goal was a reward for his efforts, and it prompted a tale of the fist onto the touchline out of Giggs, who will have been relieved from the arena.
Having dropped seven of his 13 matches accountable for another defeat might have been terminal for Welsh hopes of qualifying for Euro 2020 – and it could have place Giggs under tremendous pressure.
For him and his negative, at Bale, Wales possess a saviour for all seasons.
Read more here: http://socceradvantage.com/?p=25785