These two sides came into tonight’s game in different spirits after the opening round of qualification back at the start of September. Wales beat Andorra 2-1 away to get off to a great start whilst Bosnia-Herzegovina lost at home to Cyprus. Despite their respective starts Wales probably came into this game as slight underdogs partly due to the fact that Bosnia-Herzegovina sit 4 places above them in the FIFA rankings and also due to their massive injury list. Manager Chris Coleman was without 10 players tonight including some really key players like Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal), Joe Allen (Liverpool) and James Collins (West Ham United). Bosnia-Herzegovina also came into this fixture with history on their side, they drew their first game 0-0 whilst winning their last meeting 2-0 in Wales.

The first half was one of Bosnia-Herzegovina domination, they had 7 shots to Wales’ 0, 3 of which were on target, and they had 55% possession. The Wales defence did manage to restrict most of their efforts to outside the box and as a result they weren’t many significant threats to Wayne Hennessey’s goal in the first half. Miralem Pjanić was lucky not to be sent off in the first half when he made two challenges in just over a minute. He was booked for the first foul but for the second one he was given the benefit of the doubt and Wales could maybe feel aggrieved that one of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s star players didn’t have to leave the field. Half time couldn’t have come sooner for Coleman and his men as they struggled to create chances and even their star man Gareth Bale was kept relatively quiet in the first half.

The second half was a much more entertaining affair. Again Bosnia-Herzegovina dominated the early stages, in the 49th minute Everton midfielder Muhamed Bešić put in a brilliant low cross that Haris Medunjanin managed to get a touch on but it was superbly saved by Hennessey who kept Wales in the match for long periods of the game. Bosnia-Herzegovina were quite physical tonight although nearly all of their challenges were fair and wonderfully timed such as Bešić’s tackle on Bale juts after his the Bosnian's earlier cross where the Wales star appeared to have gotten past the 22-year old midfielder before he used his outstretched leg to recover the ball. Edin Džeko was then put through in the 50th minute but his tame shot was straight at the keeper. Medunjanin was probably Bosnia-Herzegovina’s best player on the night and he had the chance to round off his performance with a brilliant curled effort from outside the box that was heading for the bottom corner before Hennessey once again came to the rescue of his side.

It then appeared that Jonathan Williams was going to have to be substituted after he sustained a bad looking ankle injury but he was able to continue until the 82nd minute so it’s currently unknown whether or not he sustained any significant damage. This was followed by a coming together of players in the centre circle after James Chester overran the ball before appearing to lunge into a tackle. Bosnian players were unhappy with the challenge that earned Chester a yellow whilst Welsh players were unhappy with their reaction causing some minor arguments. Captains Ashley Williams and Edin Džeko were booked for their part in the ensuing ruckus.

Wales finally started to make attacking inroads into the game towards the late stages and this was shown in the 77th minute when Bale delivered a sublime cross from a costless-kick that was just slightly behind the head of Ashley Williams who headed it only just over. However, Bosnia-Herzegovina did continue to threaten and Pjanić had 2 superb costless kicks foiled by Hennessey in the 67th and 78th minutes of the tie. The Wales team then had a half-hearted penalty turned down in the 86th minute after Bale cut into the box but was unable to get past Toni Šunjić and ended up going down softly but the referee didn’t buy it. The Welsh dominated the final few minutes of the game with substitute Hal Robson-Kanu having a shot from the dge of the box deflected wide before the corner was headed over by James Chester. The final chance of the game fittingly fell to Bale who was the instigator of the Welsh fight back. A long clearance found its way Bale on the left hand side and as the defenders backed off he cut inside before cutting back down the line and shooting quickly nearly catching out Asmir Begović who somehow managed to push it past the post.