Wales ended their longest winless run since 2000-01 with a narrow 1-0 win over lowly Latvia courtesy of a Kieffer Moore first-half header.
If the first game of the Wales post-Gareth Bale era was roundly agreed to have been one of the trickiest trips imaginable in the form of facing a formidable Croatia side, then welcoming minnows Latvia to Cardiff should have been the very antithesis of such a claim. Yet, the team ranked 133rd in the world by FIFA caused problems early on for a disjointed looking Welsh outfit.
After earning a hard-fought point on the road at the weekend in Split, it was vitally important that the Dragons backed that result up with a win here, playing at home for the first time since being eliminated in the Group Stage of the Qatar World Cup. Rob Page’s side were yet to score a single first half goal during his six-game tenure but as the clock hit the 40 minute mark, Dan James received the ball on the left, slowed the defender, before clipping in a cross which Moore met with aplomb to score his 10th goal in a Welsh shirt.
The first-half goal seemed to ease the tension among the home side’s ranks with Neco Williams having a ferocious right-footed strike tipped onto the bar just after the restart. Throughout a largely uneventful second 45, Wales knocked the ball around confidently albeit with little attacking intent seemingly content with their slender lead. Latvia have an abysmal Euro qualifiers record boasting just seven wins in 52 attempts and it was the hosts who saw the game out to secure the three points, stretching their unbeaten run of home qualifiers to nine in the process.
