DANIEL JAMES MAINTAINED his impressive form for club and country by scoring the only goal of the game as Wales beat Belarus 1-0 in Monday’s friendly at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The young winger has starred for Manchester United in the early weeks of the season and transferred his club form onto the international stage with an impressive winner 17 minutes into the match against a lacklustre Belarus side.
Gareth Bale started the game on the bench and Ryan Giggs saw his side produce an improved display on the back of Friday’s disappointing late 2-1 victory over Azerbaijan in Euro 2020 qualifying.
Wales had chances to double their tally, with Bale guilty of missing a great opportunity, but in the end James’ second senior goal for Wales proved enough to make it back-to-back victories.
Giggs’ men managed only three shots on target against Azerbaijan but they tested Maksim Plotnikov inside the opening seven minutes here, the Belarus keeper parrying Harry Wilson’s left-footed shot following a swift attack.
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Plotnikov could not get a hand to James’ fine curling effort into the bottom-right corner, however, with the winger collecting the ball from Jonny Williams and picking his spot after cutting in from the left.
The hosts went close to doubling their lead seven minutes into the second half when Wilson’s whipped delivery went through a sea of bodies and came back off the post.
Bale was brought on for James and missed a glorious chance around 10 yards from goal once picked out by Wilson, blazing over the crossbar with plenty of the goal to aim for.
Belarus offered little attacking threat in the remainder of the game but Wales also struggled to create further clear-cut chances, meaning another narrow win in front of the 7,666 spectators in attendance.
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Time for player power here… Surely it’s not the Galway players fault they got relegated…. Manager out……. God bless karma
Hahahah.I’m delighted after they stabbed a good man in the back
Fair play to Cork big big win for them away from home .
Anthony cunningham will be laughing and would have every right to be !
Bonkers system!!! Cork don’t win a game all league but one game allows them stay in the top division!!!!
It’s not fair Julian. It’s not cricket
Serves the Galway players for what they did to Anthony Cunningham, but not for there supporters. Corcaigh Abu
Galway hae great support but they should be letting the players know that this isn’t on , to get a good hurling man like cunningham sacked was a disgrace
That’ll quieten Patrick Horgan’s critics for a while at least.
Ha ha hon the rebels
Id love to see kerry get them in tralee next year
Kerry will get a crack at Galway in June if they keep it up. And I wouldn’t put my house on Galway
Shameful how cork can stay up 0 wins and 0 points cause today was a playoff game. Galway 2 draws and 1 win and 4 points and they go down. Headquarters really need to have a look at this for all the divisions
Shussh…Seanie! The “relegation system” is designed as a safety net for the bigger counties. But dont tell anyone
Seanie, if Galway can’t beat a team who didn’t win a league game all this season ( Cork) and in Pearse Stadium, it’s not as if Galway did not know the rules of the league ( bottom two in relegation final) , and again “fail” in a “final” then maybe Division 2 hurling ( called 1b ) is a correct level for them to be playing at presently . The players have no excuses. The senior players not scoring enough from open play and not scoring goals !!
Cunningham can’t be blamed for this one.
When is the last time that a Division 2 ( 1b) team won the Liam McCarthy?
Come on Galway bounce back from another setback !!
Clare not win it from 1B? Agree with all your points though. Love the league now. Every week is a big game.
Good win delighted for the lads will do there confidence a world of good rebles abu
Those nasty Cork chappies will surely offer to relegate themselves in place of those valiant Galway boys. Change the rules I say
Bad day for galway hurling
Corks first goal came from a very dubious free out that Galway could have had as a free in…4 point swing, but overall goals win games
The free count was heavily against Cork so sorry you cant use that as an excuse …
If the league was ran off again tomorrow some other two teams in Div one might end up in the bottom two as there is very little between Galway Tipp Cork Dublin waterford and now even Killkenny have come “back” closer to this group.It is hard luck on Galway to be relagated but does it really matter? Clare and limerick are in the league semi final and both will have a big say in this years championship.
Come back Anthony. Clearly you were not the problem. A diet of humble pie for the team might do them good as they wait months for their next match of any consequence.
Dubious Frees? Corks John cronin got spear tackled by a galway player at the end, and the ref gave a free to galway? Overall the free count was by far in Galways favour. Without the 11 from Frees from Jo Canning, the margin would have been alot more convincing.
Yes the ref had Maroon colored glasses on and did his best to keep Galway in it Im surprised he did not disallow one of the goals for something innocuous ..
Totally false when a team with no points stays up.a new system where bottom team should be automatically relegated is the way to go cuts out a needless match.
Believe