Euro: Wales beat Slovakia 2-1

Bordeaux

(

France

), June 12 (IANS)

Debutants Wales

beat

Slovakia

2-1 in a Group B match of the Euro football championship here on Saturday.

Substitute

Hal Robson-Kanu

applied the finishing touch after an

Aaron Ramsey

assist to give

Wales

victory against Slovakia.

Real Madrid

star

Gareth Bale

gave Wales the lead in the 10th minute with a free-kick.

At the start, Wales were grateful to Ben Davies for his crucial early goalline clearance after

Marek Hamsik

's superb solo run.

And not long afterwards

Jonathan Williams

, preferred up front to Robson-Kanu, was fouled on the edge of the box and Gareth Bale drilled in a dipping free-kick to give his team a 10th-minute lead.

Now the pressure was on

Danny Ward

, winning only his third cap in the Wales goal due to

Wayne Hennessey

's late back injury. For an hour

Ward

was kept well protected and at the other end

Matus Kozacik

did well to scoop away a Bale header.

But Slovakia went for a double attacking change either side of the hour mark by introducing

Adam Nemec

and

Ondrej Duda

, who promptly turned in

Robert Mak

's pass.

However, another substitute ensured it was Wales who took the points, despite

Nemec

hitting the post with four minutes left.

After the match, Ward wrote on Twitter: "That's the start we wanted !! on to the next one."

--IANS

pur/sku/