Hundreds of Cypriots made the journey to Cardiff, Wales they came from London, Birmingham, Weston Super mare, Bristol, Manachester and of course Cyprus. We ourselves set off from Finchley at 1pm arrived in Cardiff at 5pm where we were greeted by loads of Cypriot fans waving the national flag who were noisy throughout the night..
It was a hard struggle for our team and were nervous in the first half in fear of Gareth Bale who was a constant menace and got off to a bad start two goals down within twenty minutes.
Wales continued their unbeaten start to the Euro 2016 campaign as a nervy 2-1 triumph over Cyprus, after they had been reduced to 10 men, bolstered the nation’s dream of qualifying for a major championship finals for only the second time.
Two first-half goals from substitute David Cotterill and Hal Robson-Kanu put the home side on the way to a victory which sees them lead Group B with seven points and will feed the idea that Chris Coleman’s team could emulate the 1958 Welsh side, which played in the World Cup in Sweden.
They had to graft to victory the hard way, though, after Cyprus pulled back a first-half goal through Vincent Laban’s free kick and then sought to capitalise when Andy King was sent off for a raking challenge on Constantinos Makrides. Down to 10 men but still inspired by another excellent performance from man of the match Gareth Bale, creator of Robson-Kanu’s goal with a lovely back heel.
Wales sat back for the majority of the second period as Cyprus tried valiantly to grab an equaliser – APOEL winger Giorgos Efrem came closest to levelling the game but his two headed efforts sailed wide and high respectively as the home side held on for a narrow win. Wales could easily have succumbed to an 83rd minute equaliser but the unmarked Georgios Efrem headed over.
It was Cyprus’s second loss in four days by the same scoreline. An opening group game win away to Bosnia and Herzegovina had given Cyprus a real hope of achieving something special in this qualifying campaign. A defeat against Israel on Friday in Nicosia, however, meant that a win was of the upmost importance on their trip to the Wales.
The result leaves both sides as they began the evening, with Wales top of Group B and Cyprus in fourth position. Cyprus’ next international game is on November 16 at home to Andorra in what is a must-win game if the national team is to have any hope of making at least the play-offs.