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Azerbaijan national football team
Euro Champ Qualifying | Group Stage
Nov 16, 2019 at 5pm UK
 
Wales national football team

0-2

FT(HT: 0-2)
Moore (10'), Wilson (34')

Ryan Giggs hails Azerbaijan win as one of Wales' best performances

Ryan Giggs hails Azerbaijan win as one of Wales' best performances
© Reuters
Wales will go into their final game against Hungary on Tuesday with the chance of automatic qualification.

Ryan Giggs welcomed Wales' 2-0 victory in Azerbaijan by insisting his side have found vital momentum heading into their final Euro 2020 qualifier against Hungary.

Wales kept alive their automatic qualification hopes with a comfortable win in Baku, Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson scoring first-half goals.

The qualification picture was still unclear for Wales on Saturday evening ahead of the Croatia-Slovakia game.

Azerbaijan v Wales – UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying – Group E – Bakcell Arena
Wales players applaud the fans after the final whistle (Bradley Collyer/PA)

But whatever happens in that game, Wales will still have a shot at automatic qualification in the final round of fixtures.

"The result was what counted, getting that was the priority," Giggs said.

"Some of the quality of the play was outstanding, we've improved since the Azerbaijan game (2-1 home win in September).

"We've started to gain some momentum, which is not easy in international football.

"Azerbaijan is not an easy place to come and there was so much on the game that it's up there with one of my best performances."

Giggs also had the benefit of giving game-time to star players Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey after their recent injury problems.

Bale had not played for over a month after suffering a thigh injury, but the Real Madrid forward got nearly an hour under his belt.

Juventus playmaker Ramsey replaced Bale to make his first Wales appearance in nearly a year.

"We've still got to assess it before Tuesday," Giggs said.

Azerbaijan v Wales – UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying – Group E – Bakcell Arena
Wales' Gareth Bale, right, got some game time (Bradley Collyer/PA)

"Getting Gareth off pretty early and getting Aaron some minutes as well was important, When Aaron came on he showed his quality.

"It's a quick turnaround and Gareth was blowing a little bit, which you can expect.

"But hopefully I'll have the option to start both on Tuesday.

"We had to do our job, we've done it and tried put a little bit of pressure on Slovakia."

On Wales' upturn in form, Giggs added: "I would say we've had four good performances in a row, with the Belarus friendly.

"Slovakia and Croatia are top opposition and we played well. It's what we needed after the two difficult games in the summer.

"We needed to be strong and we have been. We really dug in deep against Croatia.

"I was not happy with the amount of corners we kept giving away here, but in open play they never really troubled us and we could have scored a few more goals as well."

Wales v Azerbaijan – UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying – Group E – Cardiff City Stadium
Azerbaijan manager Nikola Jurcevic, right, felt Wales deserved to win (Nick Potts/PA)

Azerbaijan have yet to win in Euro 2020 qualifying and have picked up only one point from seven matches.

Manager Nikola Jurcevic said: "Wales deserved to win this game because they were the better team.

"We conceded goals from set-pieces, not for the first time against very big players.

"We had lots of set-pieces ourselves but the big difference between us and Wales was that they were really dangerous from theirs."

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Wales manager Ryan Giggs on October 13, 2019
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Group A

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Spain Spain870121
Q Scotland flag Scotland852117
3 Norway Norway832311
4 Georgia Georgia82248
5 Cyprus Cyprus80080

Group B

TeamPWDLPTS
Q France France871022
Q Netherlands Netherlands860218
3 Greece Greece841313
4 Ireland Rep. Ireland82066
5 Gibraltar flag Gibraltar80080

Group C

TeamPWDLPTS
Q England flag England862020
Q Italy Italy842214
3 Ukraine Ukraine842214
4 Macedonia N. Macedonia82248
5 Malta flag Malta80080

Group D

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Turkey Turkey852117
Q Croatia Croatia851216
3 Wales flag Wales833212
4 Armenia Armenia82248
5 Latvia Latvia81073

Group E

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Albania national flag Albania843115
Q Czech Republic Czech Republic843115
3 Poland Poland832311
4 Republic of Moldova Moldova824210
5 Faroe Islands Faroe Islands80262

Group F

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Belgium Belgium862020
Q Austria Austria861119
3 Sweden Sweden831410
4 Azerbaijan Azerbaijan82157
5 Estonia Estonia80171

Group G

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Hungary Hungary853018
Q Serbia Serbia842214
3 Montenegro Montenegro832311
4 Lithuania Lithuania81346
5 Bulgaria Bulgaria80444

Group H

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Denmark Denmark1071222
Q Slovenia Slovenia1071222
3 Finland Finland1060418
4 Kazakhstan Kazakhstan1060418
5 Northern Ireland flag N. Ireland103079
6 San Marino flag San Marino1000100

Group I

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Romania Romania1064022
Q Switzerland Switzerland1045117
3 Israel Israel1043315
4 Belarus Belarus1033412
5 Kosovo flag Kosovo1025311
6 Andorra flag Andorra100282

Group J

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Portugal Portugal10100030
Q Slovakia Slovakia1071222
3 Luxembourg flag Luxembourg1052317
4 Iceland Iceland1031610
5 Bosnia Bosnia H'vina103079
6 Liechtenstein flag Liechtenstein1000100


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