Brennan Johnson’s late goal denies Belgium and extends the Wales party

This time the celebrations had to wait. After the delirium of qualifying for a first World Cup finals since 1958, Wales savoured salvaging a draw at home to Belgium. Brennan Johnson slotted in a late equaliser that was awarded following a lengthy, and questionable, VAR check and by the end of six minutes of stoppage time the home support were serenading the country’s latest prodigious talent. It was a timely moment for Nottingham Forest’s Johnson, a late substitute, to score his first Wales goal, just as it seemed they would slip to a third straight Nations League defeat.

Gareth Bale recently told how Kevin De Bruyne’s potentially relentless schedule next season piqued the interest of him and his Wales team-mates over lunch but it was another Belgium midfielder with a long list of admirers who opened the scoring here. Youri Tielemans’s smart second-half strike helped Belgium into a deserved lead but Wales rescued a point with four minutes to spare, after Johnson latched on to a wonderful flick by Aaron Ramsey.

Belgium were without the injured Romelu Lukaku and were rarely troubled by Wales, until the hosts were given a late injection of energy when Johnson arrived off the bench with 15 minutes to play. Johnson stormed forward and cut inside Arthur Theate within a couple of minutes of his introduction but he saw his shot deflected wide for a corner. Wales roused from that moment. Joe Rodon headed over from a late free-kick and then came Johnson’s star turn, to avoid successive home defeats after seeing their 19-game unbeaten home run ended in midweek.

Bale returned to the starting lineup on the six-year anniversary of his free-kick against Slovakia in Wales’ Euro 2016 opener in Bordeaux, playing up front alongside Daniel