AFP
Paris, Sept 6: It was a night of great matches as Gareth Bale inspired Euro 2016 sensations Wales and Kosovo earned a historic point in World Cup qualifying matches played Monday.
At Cardiff, local hero Bale teed up Sam Vokes for a 38th-minute opener and then scored his 23rd and 24th international goals either side of an effort by Joe Allen, who registered his first in a 4-0 crushing of Moldova.
Elsewhere Daryl Murphy’s first ever international goal secured the Republic of Ireland a 2-2 draw against Serbia in Belgrade, and 10-man Italy beat Israel 3-1 in Haifa.
But arguably the performance of the night was in Turku where Valon Berisha made history, scoring Kosovo’s first goal on their competitive debut as they came from behind to draw 1-1 away to Finland.
The goal gave Kosovo a precious point in qualifying Group I after Paulus Arajuuri had put Finland in front from close range in the 18th minute.
Kosovo were accepted into FIFA in May, and this was a remarkable result given that world football’s governing body only gave their approval for a host of players to represent the Balkan outfit a few hours before the match, Monday.
Among those given the green light at the last minute were goalkeeper and captain Samir Ujkani, previously capped by Albania, Albert Bunjaku, who featured for Switzerland at the 2010 World Cup, and goalscorer Berisha, who was playing for Norway as recently as June.
