Wales vs. Finland: Score, Recap and Analysis

Finland scored an equaliser in the final minutes to earn a 1-1 draw against Wales in this international friendly.

Playing in Cardiff City Stadium in Wales, the home squad got all of their scoring from Andy King while the defense played extremely well for 90 minutes. However, Riku Riski came through in the 92nd minute to grab a respectful result.

The match started slowly with very little action occurring in the first half. Each side did a decent job of moving the ball up and down the pitch, but there was a lot of sloppiness in the final third.

Arguably the best chance for either team came in the 15th minute when Finland forward Teemu Pukki beat his man down the right side. He put a shot on net but it hit the woodwork and bounced out.

None of the other shots in the first half even went on goal, as Opta Joe points out:

Fortunately, there was better play after intermission. After a couple of chances for each side, Wales finally got on the scoreboard thanks to a "header" by King.

Hal Robson-Kanu brought the ball down the left side of the pitch and then crossed it into the middle. King came through and hit the ball with what appeared to be his shoulder into the back of the net.

Image courtesy of Feint Zebra

Still, you can still celebrate it the same way, as seen by this image courtesy of the team's official Twitter account:

Play continued with more solid opportunities by Wales, many of them from star forward Gareth Bale. The Real Madrid player could not get onto the scoresheet, but he had some quality attempts around the net and drew three fouls in the match.

Finland came back with a few shots toward the net, but they were unable to get anything behind Wayne Hennessey in net until the very end. That was when Roman Eremenko provided a nice through ball to Riski, who touched it perfectly into the goal.

As James Nursey of the Daily Mirror points out, this is a disappointing end for Wales:

Neither of these squads were able to earn a bid to the 2014 World Cup after struggling in qualifying.

Wales finished fifth with 10 points in Group A, which was won by Belgium. Finland fared slightly better with a third-place finish in Group I, but they had little chance of advancing with both Spain and France in the group. 

Still, both sides had positives to take away from this round of qualifying that they can use going forward. Additionally, friendlies like this give the coaches a chance to evaluate the players to see who can be a part of a contending squad.

Based on the effort on display in this exhibition, it is clear that each side has a lot to work with in the future.

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