top of page
  • Writer's pictureThe Season Ticket

Euro 2020 | Moore rescues a point for Wales against Switzerland

Kieffer Moore's header has rescued a point for Wales in their 1-1 draw with Switzerland in Group A at Euro 2020.

The Cardiff City striker scored an excellent header from Joe Morrell's cross to draw Wales level in the 74th minute after Breel Embolo had given Switzerland a 49th-minute lead with a header of his own in Azerbaijan.

Switzerland also had a late goal Mario Gavranovic ruled out for offside after a VAR consultation, with Wales holding on desperately to claim a valuable point.

Interim Wales manager Robert Page made seven changes from the final warm-up friendly against Albania, with Moore, Gareth Bale, Connor Roberts and Joe Rodon among those to get the nod in Baku.

Both sides created openings in the early exchanges, with Switzerland's Kevin Mbabu heading Ricardo Rodrigues' searching cross wide of the Wales goal.

Moore, 27, had the best chance of the first half.

The Welsh striker headed Dan James' excellent cross towards the top corner, but Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer made a stunning one-handed save to claw the ball away.

Switzerland piled on the pressure as the half wore on, and Danny Ward made a good save with his feet to keep Fabian Schar's flick on from a corner from finding the back of the Welsh net.

Swiss striker Haris Seferovic continued to find space to shoot for Vladimir Petković's side, flashing one strike narrowly wide in the dying minutes of the half.

Switzerland finally made their pressure count four minutes into the second half.

Ward produced another brilliant save to deny Embolo, tipping the ball over the bar after the lively Borussia Mönchengladbach star dribbled between two Welsh defenders and fired a powerful strike towards the roof of the net.

Xherdan Shaqiri's resulting corner picked out Embolo in the six-yard box, with the Swiss attacker showing good strength to hold off Roberts and power a header past Ward.

Embolo continued to wreak havoc as Petković's men threatened to double their lead; the 24-year-old dancing through the Wales defence before teeing up Kevin Mbabu, who dragged his shot horribly wide from 15 yards.

Ben Davies' drive from 20 yards was deflected behind for a Wales corner on the hour mark as Page's side battled for a way back into the game.

Wales eventually found an equalizer in the 74th minute, with Morrell floating a cross to the near post after being picked out by Joe Allen following a quickly taken short corner by James. Moore timed his run well and glanced a perfectly placed header past Sommer from 15 yards to make it 1-1.

Both sides pressed for a winner, and Wales received a huge let-off in the 85th minute when Gavranovic's brilliant volley was eventually ruled out by VAR.

In Group A's other fixture, Italy produced an impressive 3-0 win against Turkey in Rome.

Next up for Wales is a clash with Turkey in Baku on Wednesday, while Switzerland will face Italy in Rome on the same day.

1 view0 comments
bottom of page