Matondo falls to narrow defeat with Wales

The attacker replaced Daniel James in the 79th minute but couldn’t prevent his country from falling to their first defeat of their qualification campaign. The losing World-Cup finalists took the lead in the 17th minute through a James Lawrence own goal, and doubled the lead three minutes into the second half after Ivan Perisic found the back of the net in front of around 17,000 fans in Osijek. David Brooks’ 77th minute goal, which took a deflection off Domagoj Vida, ensured an exciting ending to the game but the Croatians saw the game out for a deserved victory.