Wales shock Croatia to keep Euro hopes alive thanks to Harry Wilson double

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.

None more so than the sight of Wales’s centre-back, Ben Davies, the captain’s armband on his left biceps, on the rampage, on a one-man mission to close down the Croatia goalkeeper, Dominik Livakovic, midway through the second half before then going to ground to nick the ball from Luka Modric.

The Croatia substitute Mario Pasalic ensured a tense finish, heading in at a corner, but Wales held on to register another one of those special Cardiff nights. A few minutes after the final whistle Wales’s entire squad and staff gathered in a huddle on halfway, before drinking in the occasion with their supporters. “Ben [Davies] took it [the team talk] and said ‘Yma o Hyd’, we’re still here, we’re still in it, we’re two wins away from qualifying again from another major tournament,” Rob Page said. “It’s in our hands and we’ll be going for it.”

Emotions had heightened in recent days owing to the chief executive, Noel Mooney, openly casting doubt over Page’s future before Wales trounced Gibraltar in Wrexham on Wednesday. Davies did not dress it up and described those comments as unhelpful. Tears were in Page’s eyes at his pre-match press conference and he was visibly choked again before kick-off when Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau reverberated around this stadium.

“It was just unnecessary noise coming into it, it’s like we’re having to fight fires,” Page said