Euro 2012 Qualifiers Match Review: Group G: Mirko Vucinic Leads Montenegro to 1-0 victory over Wales
Montenegro opened their Euro 2012 qualification campaign with a match against Wales. Wales and Montenegro are both part of the qualification Group G which also includes England, Switzerland and Bulgaria. Wales, under the ex-Real Madrid manager, John Toshack, lined up with a conventional 4-4-2 system with two strikers upfront.
Welsh strikers comprised of the temperamental but skilful Craig Bellamy and his partner Steve Morison. Gareth Bale, who has been the player of the season so far for his club side Tottenham, played on the left wing for Wales, while Chris Gunter, James Collins, Ashley Williams and Samuel Ricketts played in the Welsh defence.
Montenegro, on the other hand, also played a defensive 5-3-2 formation to nullify the Welsh offence, but the Slavic nation banked on their star striker Mirko Vucinic for goals during the match. As is always the case in European Championship qualification matches, the away side looks to play a conservative strategy, but in this match, Wales looked to attack in numbers as their setup quite clearly signified.
Montenegro and Wales both failed to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, therefore, both these teams had seen relatively less international football as compared to other European footballing powerhouses around the globe.
Despite their defensive formation, Montenegro started as the more confident of the two sides. They were the first ones to try their luck on goal through Elsad Zverotic, but his effort failed to hit the target in the 1st minute of the match. In the 3rd minute of the match, the first free-kick of the half went to Wales after Branko Boskovic committed a foul on David Edwards; however, the ensuing set piece did not manage to generate any threat for the Montenegrin defence.
After the first twenty minutes of the first half, Montenegro started to test the Welsh goalkeeper more often, as Wayne Hennessey made two quick saves in succession in the 23rd minute of the match from Branko Boskovic and Radomir Djalovic. Eventually it was Vucinic who opened the scoring for Montenegro, as the prolific striker finished off an easy chance from inside the six yard box near the Welsh goal. His strike ended up in the bottom right corner of the goal as Montenegro took the lead in the match.
Right before the first half ended, in the 44th minute of the match, Steve Morison was shown the first yellow card of the match for his foul on Marko Basa. However, the resulting free-kick which was taken by Milan Jovanović did not materialize into anything worthwhile.
After the second half started, Gareth Bale became the second Welsh player to go into the referee’s book due to his late challenge on Branko Boskovic in the 56th minute of the match. The match turned scrappy in the second half, as the referee started to stop the play at every single opportunity. The Welsh players found it hard under such circumstances to get any sort of rhythm or tempo to their game and thus remained restrained, whereas Montenegro went on the back-foot after scoring the first goal, and their eleven men seemed content with defending their well-earned lead. In the 67th minute of the match, Wales brought on another striker to make it three centre-forwards on the field for them in the shape of Robert Earnshaw. Earnshaw replaced David Edwards in the Welsh midfield. In the 69th minute, Milorad Pekovic was shown a yellow card by the referee for a bad tackle on Gareth Bale. James Collins made way for Craig Morgan in the 74th minute of the match, as Wales tried to change things to exert more pressure on the Montenegrin defence. Wales made their last and third substitution of the match in the 79th minute, as Simon Church replaced Steve Morison in the Welsh midfield. The match eventually ended with the score-line of one nil to Montenegro; this propelled the European minnows to a temporary first-placed spot in their group above England and Bulgaria.
Tags: