Harry Wilson Brennan Johnson Aaron Ramsey Mario Pasalic Roy Keane Rob Page David Brooks Croatia Turkey Latvia county Ramsey Armenia Wales soccer Euro 2024 Sport Harry Wilson Brennan Johnson Aaron Ramsey Mario Pasalic Roy Keane Rob Page David Brooks Croatia Turkey Latvia county Ramsey Armenia

Wilson double boosts Wales Euro 2024 qualification hope

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Harry Wilson celebrated his 50th cap with a brilliant double as Wales boosted their Euro 2024 automatic qualification hopes with a 2-1 win over Croatia in Cardiff.Wilson rewarded an excellent home performance with two clinical second-half strikes, enough to stave off a late Croatia rally that saw Mario Pasalic convert 15 minutes from time.Wales came into the contest knowing victories in their final three group games were probably necessary to secure a top-two place and avoid the play-offs in March.Rob Page's side still have to work to do in November – away to Armenia and at home to group leaders Turkey – but upsetting the 2022 World Cup semi-finalists in such fashion offers great encouragement.This win takes Wales into second place above Croatia by virtue of them having done better in their head-to-head ties, the Dragons having drawn their opening game of the campaign 1-1 in Split in March.The result will ease the pressure on manager Rob Page, who awoke to newspaper headlines on Saturday morning linking Roy Keane to his job.Page vowed he would shut out all external noise at his pre-match press conference in which he became visibly emotional, and that chatter will now surely dim after this result.Victory in Latvia last month had boosted Wales, but Aaron Ramsey and Brennan Johnson had picked up injuries and were replaced by David Brooks, a scoring substitute in Riga, and Kieffer Moore.Ben Davies took over the captaincy in Ramsey’s absence as Wilson won his landmark cap, exactly a decade on from becoming Wales’ youngest-ever player at the age of 16 years and 207 days.History was against Wales with no wins in seven games against Croatia and the visitors were smarting from Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Turkey – their first-ever home

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Wales needed to beat Croatia to keep their automatic qualification hopes alive and how they got a barnstorming performance to match. Harry Wilson was the match-winner on a supercharged night, scoring twice to hoist Wales into second in Group D and take matters into their hands, but there were no end of moments to savour from this monumental victory over a team ranked sixth in the world.
Three-time European champions Spain clinched their place at Euro 2024 after a 1-0 win at Norway on Sunday, a result which also sent Scotland through in Group A, while Turkey joined the growing list of qualified teams.

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