Gareth Bale saves the Wales

Gareth Bails out Wales

Wales managed to scrape past Andorra with a gritty 1-2 win, thanks to a brace by Real Madrid star Gareth Bale. This was an anticlimax as the Welsh were supposed to register an easy win over the minnows.

The match was treading along the scripted lines when suddenly Andorra took a shock lead in 5 minutes with a controversial goal from Ildefons Lima. He was awarded a penalty by the 5th official rather than the field referee. There was minimal contact between left back Neil Taylor and Andorran Christian Martinez.

But the Welsh clawed back into the game via their talisman's opener in the 22nd minute with a strong header on a Ben Davies cross. There were some issues regarding the pitch in Andorra. This was after the new 3G pitch was being tried by UEFA after approving it last year. Wales manager Chris Coleman was pretty vocal about it. As he said, “In my opinion the
pitch is not up to the standard of a UEFA
qualifier. But I don't want to make a
protest because I want other teams to
come here. I didn't want to say anything
about the pitch before the game, but I
can now and if you're a passing team
forget it.”

Later on Gareth Bale scored a superb free kick in 81st minute to spare  the visitors the blushes. The game was marred by injury to midfielder Aaron Ramsey late in the game. This also casts doubts over his participation in Arsenal's key clash against Manchester City this weekend.