Video: Harry Wilson’s free-kick fires Wales to win against Ireland

Republic of Ireland 0 Wales 1

In Uefa Nations League B group 4 Wales secured a superb 1-0 win against the Republic of Ireland last night thanks to Harry Wilson’s 58th-minute free-kick.

Described as “sensational” by WalesOnline and “beautiful” by BBC Sport, the free-kick came just before the hour mark with Wilson curling home from 20 yards and giving Republic keeper Darren Randolph no chance.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Wales were without Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey for the short trip to Dublin. As a result head coach Ryan Giggs gave opportunities to several youngsters including 21-year-old Wilson, who’s on loan at Derby County from Liverpool.

Giggs hailed his side for their victory and praised Wilson for his brilliant strike. He told Sky Sports: “I’m so proud – they dug in right to the end. It was a really brilliant second-half performance. The determination pleased me, to not give a goal away. I said on Thursday that we didn’t do the basics against Spain [in the 4-1 defeat] but we did today.

“He [Wilson] does it all the time in training: it’s practice, practice, practice. We set out to win the group. It’s a tough group and now it is in our hands.”

Ireland struggling

After two defeats against Wales and a draw against Denmark, the Republic of Ireland are bottom of their Uefa Nations League group with only one point from three matches.

Ireland boss Martin O’Neill said: “I felt we should have scored early on, and we are not renowned for scoring a lot of goals so we need to take our chances. It was a grandstand finish and I thought we could have got something, but... there were a lot of positives despite the result.

“They have a great spirit, we lack a little bit of technical ability. We have spirit in abundance but that won’t take you everywhere. We need to be more creative if we can.”