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Azerbaijan national football team
Euro Champ Qualifying | Group Stage
Nov 16, 2019 at 5pm UK
 
Wales national football team

0-2

FT(HT: 0-2)
Moore (10'), Wilson (34')

Ryan Giggs hails Azerbaijan win as one of Wales' best performances

Ryan Giggs hails Azerbaijan win as one of Wales' best performances
© Reuters
Wales will go into their final game against Hungary on Tuesday with the chance of automatic qualification.

Ryan Giggs welcomed Wales' 2-0 victory in Azerbaijan by insisting his side have found vital momentum heading into their final Euro 2020 qualifier against Hungary.

Wales kept alive their automatic qualification hopes with a comfortable win in Baku, Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson scoring first-half goals.

The qualification picture was still unclear for Wales on Saturday evening ahead of the Croatia-Slovakia game.

Azerbaijan v Wales – UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying – Group E – Bakcell Arena
Wales players applaud the fans after the final whistle (Bradley Collyer/PA)

But whatever happens in that game, Wales will still have a shot at automatic qualification in the final round of fixtures.

"The result was what counted, getting that was the priority," Giggs said.

"Some of the quality of the play was outstanding, we've improved since the Azerbaijan game (2-1 home win in September).

"We've started to gain some momentum, which is not easy in international football.

"Azerbaijan is not an easy place to come and there was so much on the game that it's up there with one of my best performances."

Giggs also had the benefit of giving game-time to star players Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey after their recent injury problems.

Bale had not played for over a month after suffering a thigh injury, but the Real Madrid forward got nearly an hour under his belt.

Juventus playmaker Ramsey replaced Bale to make his first Wales appearance in nearly a year.

"We've still got to assess it before Tuesday," Giggs said.

Azerbaijan v Wales – UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying – Group E – Bakcell Arena
Wales' Gareth Bale, right, got some game time (Bradley Collyer/PA)

"Getting Gareth off pretty early and getting Aaron some minutes as well was important, When Aaron came on he showed his quality.

"It's a quick turnaround and Gareth was blowing a little bit, which you can expect.

"But hopefully I'll have the option to start both on Tuesday.

"We had to do our job, we've done it and tried put a little bit of pressure on Slovakia."

On Wales' upturn in form, Giggs added: "I would say we've had four good performances in a row, with the Belarus friendly.

"Slovakia and Croatia are top opposition and we played well. It's what we needed after the two difficult games in the summer.

"We needed to be strong and we have been. We really dug in deep against Croatia.

"I was not happy with the amount of corners we kept giving away here, but in open play they never really troubled us and we could have scored a few more goals as well."

Wales v Azerbaijan – UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying – Group E – Cardiff City Stadium
Azerbaijan manager Nikola Jurcevic, right, felt Wales deserved to win (Nick Potts/PA)

Azerbaijan have yet to win in Euro 2020 qualifying and have picked up only one point from seven matches.

Manager Nikola Jurcevic said: "Wales deserved to win this game because they were the better team.

"We conceded goals from set-pieces, not for the first time against very big players.

"We had lots of set-pieces ourselves but the big difference between us and Wales was that they were really dangerous from theirs."

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Wales manager Ryan Giggs on October 13, 2019
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Group A

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Scotland flag Scotland550015
2 Spain Spain43019
3 Norway Norway52127
4 Georgia Georgia51134
5 Cyprus Cyprus50050

Group B

TeamPWDLPTS
1 France France550015
2 Netherlands Netherlands43019
3 Greece Greece53029
4 Ireland Rep. Ireland51043
5 Gibraltar flag Gibraltar50050

Group C

TeamPWDLPTS
1 England flag England541013
2 Italy Italy42117
3 Ukraine Ukraine52127
4 Macedonia N. Macedonia52127
5 Malta flag Malta50050

Group D

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Croatia Croatia431010
2 Turkey Turkey531110
3 Armenia Armenia52127
4 Wales flag Wales52127
5 Latvia Latvia50050

Group E

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Albania national flag Albania531110
2 Czech Republic Czech Republic42208
3 Republic of Moldova Moldova52218
4 Poland Poland52036
5 Faroe Islands Faroe Islands50141

Group F

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Belgium Belgium541013
2 Austria Austria541013
3 Sweden Sweden52036
4 Azerbaijan Azerbaijan40131
5 Estonia Estonia50141

Group G

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Hungary Hungary431010
2 Serbia Serbia531110
3 Montenegro Montenegro52218
4 Bulgaria Bulgaria50232
5 Lithuania Lithuania50232

Group H

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Denmark Denmark641113
2 Slovenia Slovenia641113
3 Finland Finland640212
4 Kazakhstan Kazakhstan640212
5 Northern Ireland flag N. Ireland61053
6 San Marino flag San Marino60060

Group I

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Switzerland Switzerland642014
2 Romania Romania633012
3 Israel Israel632111
4 Belarus Belarus61144
5 Kosovo flag Kosovo60424
6 Andorra flag Andorra60242

Group J

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Portugal Portugal660018
2 Slovakia Slovakia641113
3 Luxembourg flag Luxembourg631210
4 Iceland Iceland62046
5 Bosnia Bosnia H'vina62046
6 Liechtenstein flag Liechtenstein60060

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