http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36631186 Wales V Northern Ireland Highlights Here..................
Quality Wise this was one of the poorest games of the tournament, but you have to give Michael O'Neill a lot of credit, instead of lining up with his usual 4.1.4.1 formation, The Northern Ireland Manager played three at the back to stop Chris Gunter and Neil Taylor from providing Wales with the pace and width I saw from Wales when I watched The Slovakia Game and this match was a real tactical battle, a battle that Northern Ireland had the better off as Stuart Dallas forced Wayne Hennessey to make the best save of the first half and The Wales Number One had to tip over Jamie Ward's excellent strike, I am not sure what game Dean Saunders was watching, because he wanted Northern Ireland to attack so Wales can hit Northern Ireland on the counter attack, well Northern Ireland were attacking, they had created two goal-scoring opportunities which have tested Wayne Hennessey between the sticks, and because Michael O'Neill had made sure that Chris Gunter and Neil Taylor are marked, Wales are struggling to get any attacking moves going.
Neil Taylor whips in a fantastic cross and Sam Vokes manages to header the ball on target and even though Aaron Ramsey sticks the ball into the back of the net, Aaron Ramsey was flagged for offside, and I think Michael McGovern would have saved Sam Vokes header on target, The Northern Ireland Goalkeeper was having a very comfortable first forty five minutes compared to the number of saves he had to make against Germany, saves that have ensured that Northern Ireland reached The Knock-Out Stages of The European Championships.
The Second Half started to open up a bit more as Aaron Ramsey whips in a fantastic cross which is headed just wide by Sam Vokes and Wales had an even better chance as Gareth Bale's effort on goal from another free kick is saved by Michael McGovern and Wales were a much improved team in The Second Half, the substitutions from Chris Coleman made all the difference as Hal Robson-Kanu comes on for Sam Vokes and Johnny Williams replaces Joe Ledley, and it was Hal Robson-Kanu who was involved for the move which eventually created the only goal of the game, Aaron Ramsey plays the ball forward to Hal-Robson-Kanu, who holds the ball up and plays the ball back to Aaron Ramsey, who plays the ball out-wide to Gareth Bale, who has whipped in a dangerous low cross across the six yard box and Gareth McAuley was very unlucky to score The Own Goal which separated the two sides, because The Northern Ireland Defender had to make contact with the ball as Hal Robson-Kanu was in for a tap in and there have been a few goals scored like that in this tournament.
Michael O'Neill threw caution the wind and Josh Magennis, Niall McGinn and Conor Washington all came on to try and give Northern Ireland more of a attacking threat in the final third, Conor Washington came on before Wales had scored the opening goal of the game, but Michael O'Neill has relied on Josh Magennis and Niall McGinn as impact substitutes through this competition, and Niall McGinn scoring the second goal against Ukraine meant that Northern Ireland qualified as one of the four best third placed teams to reach The Knock-Out Stages, you have to say well done to Northern Ireland and Wales for getting out of there respective groups, Wales can consider themselves very lucky to win, but you need some luck along the way if your going to progress in this competition and in Gareth Bale, Wales have got A World Class Player who can make the difference on the day, he proved that against Northern Ireland Yesterday as it was his cross which led to the only goal of what was a really good tactical battle, but this match was lacking quality, although the endeavour and effort from the players could never be questioned on a very hot afternoon.
UEFA Deserve credit for giving this Home Nations Match to Martin Atkinson, A Foreign Referee would not have allowed this match to flow as it did and Martin Atkinson treated yesterday's match like a derby and tried to let the match flow, Now that Wales are in The Quarter Finals, they have a genuine chance of winning The Euro's, Denmark won in 1992, Greece won in 2004, Wales for 2016 ??? - that is very likely, hopefully England can reach The Quarter Finals with a win, but Iceland will not be easy to play against, as they have shown from there matches against Hungary, Austria and Portugal.