Wales 1 - 2 Croatia: Welsh hope sunk by late goals

WALES saw their hopes of World Cup qualification all but ended as Croatia came from a goal down to claim victory at the Liberty Stadium.

Scorers: Wales: Bale (21, pen); Croatia: Lovren (77) Eduardo (87)

Gareth Bale gave Wales the lead from the penalty spot after Dejan Lovren had brought down Joe Ledley. But goals inside the final 15 minutes from Lovren and Eduardo left Wales ten points adrift of the Group A pacesetters with only 12 left on the table for Chris Coleman’s side.

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Wales made an excellent start and got their reward on 20 minutes when Williams was tripped by Lovren in the penalty area. Bale slotted the spot-kick down the middle.

The visitors frustrations were summed up when Badelj’s fierce shot struck Sammir and slid narrowly wide, before Mario Mandzukic wasted their best opportunity by firing high and wide having been freed by Eduardo’s lofted pass. Bale spurned another superb chance when he spooned over the bar.

Croatia pressure in the second-half eventually told, but the goal was down to a misjudgement from Glyn Myhill. Lovren’s shot looked to be easy enough for the West Brom number one to stop, but he failed to get behind it and it flew beyond him into the corner of the net.

The turnaround was completed when Eduardo made no mistake three minutes from time as he volleyed home from a similar position to the chance Olic had missed moments earlier.

• Belgium maintained their narrow advantage over Croatia at the top of World Cup qualifying Group A after completing back-to-back wins over Macedonia. Eden Hazard struck the only goal just after the hour as Belgium followed up their 2-0 on Friday.

Wales: Myhill, Gunter, Ashley Williams, Collins, Davies, Ledley, Jonathan Williams, King, Bellamy, Robson-Kanu, Bale. Subs: Price, Lynch, Nyatanga, Ricketts, Richards, Church, Tudur Jones, Vokes, Easter, Fon Williams.

Croatia: Pletikosa, Strinic, Corluka, Lovren, Srna, Rakitic, Modric, Sammir, Badelj, Mandzukic, Eduardo. Subs: Kresic, Pavlovic, Kovacic, Vukojevic, Jelavic, Schildenfeld, Kalinic, Olic, Petric, Vida, Subasic.