At the Cardiff City Stadium, Wales qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1958 by beating Ukraine 1-0. The only goal was scored by Andriy Yarmolenko against his camp (34th). Among the visitors, Eduard Sobol, the defender of Club Brugge, remained on the bench.
Left to rest on Wednesday for the Nations League duel against Poland, Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen and Ben Davies started this time around. On the Ukrainian side, Oleksandr Petrakov trusted the players, who started in Scotland on Wednesday with in particular the trio Viktor Tsygankov – Roman Yaremchuk – Yarmolenko in front.
The Ukrainians started the match and Wayne Hennessey had to stop a cross shot from Yaremchuk (12th) in two stages. With Tsygankov, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Oleksandr Karavaev, the Yellow and Blue continued to push but when they were dominated, the Welsh got away with a kick from Bale deflected by Yarmolenko (34th). The goal will be attributed to the Ukrainian who thus scores an autogoal.
Directly on the restart, the Dragons could have doubled the gap by Ramsey, but isolated at six meters, the midfielder of Juventus did not target his shot (49th). On the other hand, Hennessey performed a miracle on a strike from Tsygankov (56th).
If they gradually retreated, the Welsh saw a resumption of the right of Brennan Johnson hit the post and on the rebound, Georgi Bushchan surpassed himself on a resumption of the left of Bale (76th). In the other camp, Hennessey was again heroic by diverting a header from Artem Dovbyk (84th).
Wales will go to Qatar where they have been drawn into Group B with England, Iran and the United States.