Craig Bellamy celebrated the first win of his managerial career as Wales claimed victory over Montenegro in one of the most bizarre matches you will see.
With heavy rain creating conditions that were at times farcical, there was a goal after 37 seconds, Stevan Jovetic hit the crossbar from inside his own half and Kieffer Moore missed an open goal from inside the six-yard box.
Things were pretty curious off the pitch, too. The second half began with a firework display among the home fans, housed in an uncovered stand, that lasted nearly a minute.
This game was switched to Niksic due to the poor quality of the pitch at the City Stadium in Podgorica and the new venue looked more like a county-level athletics arena than a football stadium.
No matter. Wales played superbly in the 0-0 draw against Turkey, Bellamy’s first game in charge, but could not score. Here, they were two up inside three minutes.
Montenegro failed to clear Connor Roberts’ cross and when the ball rebounded off Harry Wilson, Moore swept it in off the post.
Then Wilson quickly doubled the lead with a glorious strike from 25 yards.
Jovetic nearly scored an even better one when he seized on a misplaced pass from Ethan Ampadu and lobbed Karl Darlow from inside his own half, only for the ball to rebound off the crossbar.
Darlow then saved brilliantly from Nikola Krstovic and Jovetic before Ben Davies did even better to clear the follow-up from Driton Camaj off the line.
Wales’ bold approach started to look a little reckless after the break and they had several close shaves – though Moore should have put the game to bed when he turned Davies’ cross over from four yards.
Not long afterwards Vladimir Jovovic hit the post from 25 yards and Montenegro finally got the goal they deserved, Camaj sliding home after Krstovic’s cross caught the Welsh defence flat-footed.
