The Czech Republic hosted Wales in a World Cup qualifying match in Prague yesterday. It resulted in an exciting 2-2 draw as Czechs are staying in 2nd place in Group E followed by Wales in 3rd.
The game was filled with great chances on both sides. Czech offence got fired up a bit sooner than their opponents. Young Sparta Prague talent Adam Hložek had a great chance in the 8th minute as he found a way to test the Wales goalkeeper with a smart low shot.
Wales had an ever better chance only 10 minutes later when Kieffer Moore and Daniel James went 2 on 1 against the Czech defence. Czech goalkeeper Tomáš Vaclík had to come up with an amazing save to keep the game even and steal a certain goal from the Welsh attackers.
Unfortunately for the Czech Republic, Wales finally managed to put one in in the 36th minute after finding a gaping hole in Czech defense. Neco Williams found Wales captain Aaron Ramsey with a simple pass into the box and the Juventus midfielder had an easy job of firing the ball into basically an empty net.
Czechs were not impressed as they immediately equalized after Wales goalkeeper punched the ball straight onto the feet of Czech winger Jakub Pešek who didn’t hesitate.
The oddest goal of the game came in the 49th minute. Czechs kept forechecking the Welsh defence high up the pitch, and Aaron Ramsey, in an attempt to calm his team down, passed the ball onto the feet of their goalkeeper Danny Ward. While he did expect to receive the pass, he couldn’t quite control it as it jumped over his foot and went straight into his own net.
The own goal wasn’t enough to break the spirit of the Wales squad and they kept fighting even harder now. The last goal came in the 69th minute when Daniel James found a way to beat the Czech goalkeeper with a strong shot aimed at the left post to make it 2-2. Wales kept pushing to find the winner and they were the much better team in the last minutes, but Vaclík kept the ball out of the Czech net for the rest of the game and the score did not change.
