Wales have almost secured promotion with a win, Turkey are almost certainly out. Bale shines, then throws away a penalty

Both teams needed to score points to advance. Turkey would have been eliminated by another defeat after their 3:0 opening loss, while Wales needed to get full points before their match against Italy. In the end, the match went better for Bale’s side, who advanced to the eighth round.

Turkey’s coach promised the fans that after the poor performance against Italy, their next performance would be vastly different. But his charges apparently did not hear that promise.

In the 6th minute, Gareth Bale found Aaron Ramse in an open Turkish defence, who found Söyüncü in the small area and finished to the first bar. But Ugurcan Cakir made another great save to keep the Turks in the game.

But Turkey continued to play very poorly and the defence didn’t seem to work at all. In the 17th minute, the Welsh again got in front of the opponents’ goal, Söyüncü played with his hand, but the referee did not give a penalty.

In the 24th minute another warning came. Bale again found Aaron Ramsey in the whitewash, but he shot high over. Turkey’s defence continued its lax pace and by the third time of all good things it came.

In the 42nd minute, Wales captain Gareth Bale found the ball deep in the area and with a wonderful pass behind the defence, invited Aaron Ramsey to score again. He worked the ball onto his chest and sent the ball past Cakir into the net, leaving the Turkey defence standing like a scalded man. It was 1:0 to Wales going into the booths.

In the 54th minute, the Turks finally broke through. Demiral found an overhit corner and returned it to the small area where Burak Yilmaz was all alone. But he blew his chance and shot high over the bar.

Two minutes later, Aaron Ramsey again had a chance, but didn’t add a second goal. In the 60th minute, captain Gareth Bale got to the ball again, guided the ball into the box and flicked it over the leg of Celik. The referee didn’t hesitate and whistled for a penalty.

It was Bale himself who took the penalty, but once again the unwritten rule of football was confirmed. That is, never let a fouled player take a penalty. The Real Madrid striker shot high over the bar.

Then the Turks smelled a chance and started to tighten the screws a bit. Wales, on the other hand, were more likely to dig deep and wait for a quick counter. For a long time Yilmaz and co. could not get any scoring opportunities, but in the 88th minute a corner kick came.

This was played brilliantly by Hakan Calhanoglu, Merih Demiral’s header flew exactly to the bar, but Danny Ward made a superb save.

Towards the end of the game, the Turks were getting frustrated, with captain Burak Yilmaz getting into one scuffle. But they couldn’t do anything about the result, instead it was Wales who changed the score.

Gareth Bale headed it from a corner all the way to the whitewash in the 95th minute, laid the ball off to Roberts, who increased the score to 2-0 and almost certainly sent Wales into the eighth round.

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