Football Association of Wales

Match Report - Wales 1 - 0 Estonia

29 May 2009

Players

Substitutions

Goals

Cards

Officials

Referee: Magnus Thorisson (Iceland)

Assistant referee 1: Johann Gunnar Gudmundsson (Iceland)

Assistant referee 2: Frosti Vidar Gunnarsson (Iceland)

4th official: Dean John (Wales)

Other information

Attendance: 4,071

Report: This was the first Nationwide International Friendly, for a senior team to be played at the Parc Y Scarlets in Llanelli. John Toshack put out a young side, with many of the under 21 squad coming on as substitutes throughout the game. Wales beat Estonia by a goal to nil, courtesy of a penalty by Robert Earnshaw.

Wales began the game in a determined fashion as within the 7th minute Robert Earnshaw has a chance to hit the goal with a pass from Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale, but Earnshaw misses.

Wales have their first corner kick of the game in the 18th minute, taken by the captain Joe Ledley, put the ball is deflected away from the goal by the Estonian defence.

Estonia have their first attempt on goal 20 minutes into the match from Alo Dupikov, who heads the ball from the left hand side of the pitch but narrowly misses the goal.

The Estonians appear frustrated by their lack of attempts on goal and this results in an illegal tackle to Ledley by Alo Barengrub in the Estonian penalty area. A penalty is given to Wales by referee Magnus Thorisson, from Iceland. Earnshaw takes the penalty with a slow run up and hits the ball into the back of the net in the 25th minute, making it 1-0 to the home team.

The goal appears to be a wake up call to the Estonian team, who make their first attempt to break the Welsh defence, but to no avail with sound defending by Bale.

Joe Ledley has a shot on goal in the 31st minute, but is saved by goalkeeper Artur Kotenko.

The first half ended with no stoppage time.

The second half began with the first yellow card of the game for Puri, against a foul on Cardiff City’s Ledley in the 57th minute.

Wales make their first substitute in the 59th minute of the game with Earnshaw being replaced by under 21 international player Simon Church and Sam Vokes being replaced by Manchester City’s Ched Evans.

Church is only on the pitch for one minute before he receives a yellow card for a foul on Taijio Teniste, who was taken off the pitch while ice was applied to his hand. Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey scores a goal but is disallowed as the whistle was blown to stop play before the goal.

Estonia receive a free kick taken by Dmitri Kruglov, but the ball is deflected by the Welsh wall.

Wales make another substitute with Aaron Ramsey coming off to make way for Wolverhampton’s David Edwards.

There is great passing of the ball between Joe Ledley and Tottenham Hotspur’s Chris Gunter, which results in Ledley making an attempt on goal.

76 minutes into the game Bale takes the corner, which goes to West Ham’s Jack Collison, who passes to Bale who strikes the ball into the goal area, but Kotenko punches the ball away from the Welsh players.

Toshack substitutes Collison for under 21 player Joe Allen, which is evident that Toshack is keen on developing younger players into the senior squad, and giving them a chance to develop and mould into great players.

In the 85th minute Estonia receive a yellow card for Konstantin Vassiljev for a foul on Gunter.

Wales make their final substitute of the game with Andy king replacing Ched Evans, after he becomes injured during a collision with Tihhon Slsov.

Three minutes of extra time is added, but there were no more attempts on goal for either side.

Wales won through an Earnshaw penalty and were the dominating team on the night. Estonia never posed a real threat to Welsh side and Wales took control in both the first and second half of the game, with some great attempts on goal by captain Joe Ledley, Bale and Earnshaw; and Aaron Ramsey was made Nationwide’s Man of the Match. If this game is anything to go by Wales have a solid chance to win against Azerbaijan next week.

By Victoria Turner.

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