Wales top group over England, Slovakia stand good chance of progressing

Newcomers Wales and the outstanding Gareth Bale have stormed into the EURO 2016 round of 16, knocking out 2018 World Cup hosts Russia in the process. Playing some inspired attacking football, they won 3-0 in Toulouse to top the group – also because England could only muster a 0-0 draw with Slovakia.

Reaching the round of 16 is Wales’ greatest achievement since making it through to the World Cup quarterfinals 58 years ago. They will now face a third-place finisher in their fixture on Saturday (18:00 CEST). England must make do with finishing second and face the second-place team from Group F, either Portugal, Austria, Hungary or Iceland, in their round of 16 tie. European Championship newcomers Slovakia stand a very good chance of progressing after finishing third in the group with four points.

For beleaguered sporting nation Russia, this is the third major tournament in succession in which they’ve failed to make it through the group stages. It’s quite a different tale for Wales: Led by the £100m-man from Real Madrid, who scored his third of the tournament (67’), no doubts were ever cast on their success. Goals from Aaron Ramsey (11‘) and Neil Taylor (20‘) before the break reflected an impressive team performance.

Wales vastly superior

Schalke's Roman Neustädter, who started both previous games for Russia, was an unused sub this time. Hard-running and strong in the tackle, Wales were vastly superior in front of the 28,840 fans.

After a quality pass from Joe Allen, the impressive Ramsey put Wales ahead with a delightful chip over the onrushing keeper Igor Akinfeev. Prior to the goal, the Welsh team’s clever pressing had led to the 2008 semi-finalists losing the ball in defensive midfield.

Bale settles game

Wales benefitted from Russia’s weaknesses and sloppiness to make it 2-0. Roman Shirokov deflected Bale’s pass into the path of Taylor. Akinfeev blocked his first attempt but he buried the rebound to net his first international goal. The Russians then surrendered to their fate with Artyom Dzyjuba (27’) wasting their only chance of the half.

Akinfeev denied Bale further opportunities to score but the superstar finally converted his fifth chance and crowned his performance with a much-deserved goal.

Strong Vardy misses chance to open scoring

England’s first aim was getting through to the knockout stages. After the 1-1 draw with Russia and the 2-1 victory over Wales, they would have topped the group with a win. In front of their association’s President Prince William, England created the best goal scoring opportunities with Jamie Vardy from English Champions Leicester City being heavily involved in the action. Despite a solid performance and clear superiority, the Three Lions’ shortcoming was once again their inability to finish.

Manager Roy Hodgson made six changes from the starting XI that beat Wales. Amongst others, he rested captain Wayne Rooney and forward Harry Kane for the start of the match in front of 39,051 fans in St. Etienne. Daniel Sturridge and Vardy played alongside Adam Lallana. Rooney came on in the 56th minute while Kane followed 20 minutes later.

Vardy had the first good opportunity for England (5‘), who played the ball around well and were clearly the better side from the outset. A few minutes later, Sturridge’s effort was blocked by Peter Pekarik (9‘) - and England were overtaken in the table by Wales during this period of the game. The Three Lions continued to inspire, especially Vardy.

Slovakia defend wisely

Slovakia hardly attacked. When the European Championship newcomers had the ball, they had no clear route to goal because England were tight in the middle of the park and reduced their opponents to long-ball football. The Three Lions carved out some good opportunities with the nimble Vardy having the best. He skipped away from Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel but was denied by shot-stopper Matus Kozacik (17’).

Midway through the first half, the Slovakians realised that they were often left quite open at the back and decided to take no further risks. At times they had six men in defence. When England were able to get shots off, with Lallana (33’) and Nathaniel Clyne (53’) having chances, Kozacik was on hand.

Seconds before Clyne’s chance, Robert Mak almost profited from a misunderstanding between English goalkeeper Joe Hart and defender Chris Smalling. It was a rare attempt to score from Slovakia. England missed further opportunities, including Skrtel clearing Dele Alli’s effort off the line after neat build-up play by Jordan Henderson.