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Evans inspires Wales to Iceland win

28/05/2008

Ched Evans marked his international debut with the only goal of the game as Wales beat Iceland in Reykjavik.

John Toshak took a young and relatively inexperienced side to the Laugardalsvollur Stadium with Manchester City striker Evans joined by Sam Volkes and Joe Ledley, while veteran Craig Bellamy had to be content with a place on the bench as he made his return from a lengthy injury.

In addition, the manager was forced to do without Gareth Bale, Simon Davies and Danny Gabbidon as he looked for a fourth successive victory.

The first half was a thoroughly scrappy affair, with both sides struggling to cope with a bumpy pitch and stamp their dominance on the game.

However, the dull proceedings were lit up by a moment of inspiration from Evans just before the interval, with the substitute's first touch a stunning back heel flick past Sturluson in the Iceland goal as he latched onto a Ledley cross.

Evans carried on looking lively in the second half, which saw Bellamy come on to achieve a landmark 50 caps for his country, though neither side looked like altering the score as the game dragged on into the night.

Volkes came the closest for Wales, putting a Bellamy cross just wide, though while the margin of victory was narrow, Wales will be given a significant boost ahead of their qualification campaign for the 2010 World Cup, particularly when the fact that the average age of Toshak's side in Iceland was 22 is taken into consideration.