It's been a great night for Welsh football And it was the 28-year-old who created the first chance of the match when he released Bulikin in the Welsh box after 13 minutes. The Dynamo Moscow striker took one touch before firing a low, right-foot shot just wide of Paul Jones' far post.Wales might have been allowing their opponents too much of the ball, but at least they were standing firm. Yartsev opted for a 4-4-2 formation, although Dmitri Loskov was effectively acting as a third forward alongside the other two Dmitris, Sichev and Bulikin.Every Russian player had been promised a £700,000 qualification bonus, and the incentive seemed to be working early on, as the home side pushed forward looking for an early goal. There is still a lot of work to do before tickets can be booked for next summer's tournament."All week, the Russians had hoped for the worse possible conditions and, right on cue, snow started falling 90 minutes before kick-off. The flakes did not settle, but the shower did lower the already freezing temperatures. At least the pitch was more inviting, though this was never going to be a day for pretty, attacking Welsh football. Hughes' 4-1-4-1 starting line-up confirmed as much.The captain, Gary Speed, was moved up from left-back to shore up a midfield that weakened by the absences of Simon Davies and Mark Pembridge, while Cardiff's pacey forward Robert Earnshaw was left on the bench in favour of the more defensive-minded Andy Johnson.Russia, meanwhile, decided to draw inspiration from their hosts for the day Lokomotiv Moscow, a club that destroyed Internazionale 3-0 in the Champions' League at the same ground last month. One need only look at recent Champions' League results to see that goalless first legs do not always favour the home team for the return match. "I know it's boring," Hughes said, "but it really is only half-time.
This was a bad result for us."True, but they will still present a threat in Cardiff. It's been a great night for Welsh football."Russia felt the home leg offered them the ideal opportunity to take control of the tie, which explains why they were so disappointed with the stalemate. "Wales impressed me," their manager Georgi Yartsev said, "but we did not play well enough. "Our energy levels were high for the entire 90 minutes and we restricted the Russians to very few scoring chances. Wales took a serious option on qualification for the 2004 European Championship by holding Russia to a goalless draw in the first leg of their play-off here last night. The result was all the more impressive because the Welsh arrived at Lokomotiv Moscow's wonderful new stadium knowing that the odds were stacked against them. Indeed, Russia's record of having lost only one competitive match in Moscow - a 1999 defeat by the then defending world champions France in a Euro 2000 qualifier - is second to none. Wales may not have broken that spell but they will surely view this hard-fought draw as a moral victory."I was very pleased with the performance," their manager Mark Hughes said. "It does not matter that we play the decisive game away because our defence will be stronger [Bayern Munich's Robert Kovac returns from suspension] and we are certainly capable of scoring in Ljubljana." But with the away goals rule in operation, a 0-0 draw on Wednesday will give the Slovenians a third major tournament appearance in four years after Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup .. "It wasn't a day for our forwards, but I know exactly what to do to improve our chances in Slovenia," he said. But Slovenia's only other alarm came when Prso's header was blocked by Dabanovic and a post.Baric remains confident. But he will miss the return after being booked.Otto Baric, the Croatia coach, sent on midfielders Milan Rapaic and Giovanni Rosso at the start of the second half, and Darijo Srna on the hour, as the home side tried to build a lead for the second leg. Ermin Siljak, Slovenia's top scorer in their European Championship campaign, was on target again midway through the first half of their play-off against Croatia in Zagreb as his team earned a 1-1 draw to take back to Ljubljana on Wednesday. In front of a 35,000 crowd at the Maksimir Stadium, a disappointing Croatia went ahead after only five minutes through Dado Prso, the Monaco striker who scored four in his club's 8-3 Champions League win over Deportivo La Coru?ecently and is coveted by several Premiership clubs. Prso beat goalkeeper Mladen Dabanovic with a tap-in set up by an Ivica Mornar header from Niko Kovac's free-kick.But Slovenia, who had suffered only two defeats during their qualifying campaign, both against their group's comfortable winners, France, fought back and Siljak headed the equaliser. "I know exactly what to do to improve our chances in Slovenia," he said.. |
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