Tuesday, 10 September 2019

James on target against Belarus

Dan James earned a rest after scoring the winner against Belarus.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Daniel James scored his second goal in three games at the Cardiff City Stadium on Monday night as a young Wales side recorded a 1-0 friendly win over Belarus. The 21-year-old winger played just 50 minutes of the match, but not before curling in the winner from the edge of the area with just over a quarter of an hour played.


After winning the ball back in his own half, Charlton Athletic's Jonny Williams set off on a solo run, before playing the ball to James in the inside-left channel. James cut inside onto his right foot and bent his shot around Belarus goalkeeper Maksim Plotnikov from 18 yards.
James is in top form at the moment, having scored four goals in his last six appearances for club and country, and fans will be hoping that form will carry over into the next set of qualifiers in October.
"It was a difficult one with Dan whether to rest him, but he wanted to play. When you are in form like his, players just want to play and keep scoring. He's one of those players where you know what he's going to do but you can't stop it. There are so many goals [he has scored] like that, but it's very difficult to stop because he can go either way." - Ryan Giggs
United youngster Dylan Levitt was named on the bench, just as he had been for the qualifying defeat away to Croatia in June, but again did not make an appearance.

Although Monday's match was only a friendly, Wales' case for qualification from Group E strengthened thanks to other results in their section, with leaders Croatia drawing 1-1 away to bottom side Azerbaijan, and Hungary going down 2-1 at home to Slovakia. Wales slip to fourth place, but they are now only three points off Slovakia and Hungary with a game in hand. The top two sides qualify directly for next year's pan-European finals tournament, with play-off places determined by performances in last year's UEFA Nations League campaign.

For the Wales under-19s, United's Oliver Denham and Iestyn Hughes were on standby for a mini tournament in Denmark over the weekend. On Friday, the semi-final match against the hosts finished in a 3-3 draw, before Denmark prevailed 5-4 on penalties. Monday's third-place play-off against Norway saw Wales come back from two goals down to draw 2-2, but they were unable to come away with the win, losing 4-2 on penalties.
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