The Czech Republic’s visit to Cardiff City Stadium has long looked like being the game which would decide who will finish top of the group, particularly after the two sides drew 2-2 in the opening fixture of the campaign in April.<\/p>\n
So it has proved \u2013 although nobody anticipated that the group’s two leading sides would both drop points in the penultimate round of fixtures.<\/p>\n
Wales ought now to be a draw away from guaranteeing they end top of the group, but instead must deliver victory in midweek.<\/p>\n
They have had two emphatic wins on home soil in this campaign, but the Czechs \u2013 who in 32nd, are just a place below Wales in the world rankings \u2013 will be far sterner opponents than either Albania or Montenegro.<\/p>\n
With a half on eye on Tuesday’s fixture, perhaps, Wilkinson picked something of an experimental side in Montenegro \u2013 and Wales arguably paid the price.<\/p>\n
Wales, who were captained for the first time by Carrie Jones, had demolished these opponents earlier in the campaign, scoring five goals before half-time as Montenegro played a high line and were repeatedly sliced apart.<\/p>\n
The pattern was different in the return fixture, with the hosts sitting deeper and doing a decent job of frustrating Wales for long spells.<\/p>\n
The one goal Wales did manage came thanks to a soft penalty decision, with Ella Powell tumbling to the ground after a challenge from Katarina Cadenovic and referee Henrikke Nervik pointing to the spot.<\/p>\n
Cain finished confidently, stroking the ball right as Kalac edged left to claim a seventh goal in her past six international appearances.<\/p>\n
The lead was almost wiped out right at the start of the second half when Desic poked just wide of Safia Middleton-Patel’s far post, before Wales came within inches of doubling their advantage when Elise Hughes lifted a shot over the goalkeeper only for home skipper Sladjana Bulatovic to clear from under the bar.<\/p>\n
Cain slashed the rebound wastefully over the top, with Welsh claims that Hughes’ effort had crossed the line waved away by the officials.<\/p>\n
Even so, one goal looked like being enough for Wales until Woodham’s error allowed Desic to centre and Djokovic converted as Esther Morgan could not clear.<\/p>\n
Wales’ attempts to conjure a late response came to nothing in what ultimately was a display to match their painful journey to Montenegro. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Czech Republic’s visit to Cardiff City Stadium has long looked like being the game which would decide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-623186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}