Arnautovic scores twice as Austria hold Wales

Austrian TV had a short feature before kick off on the beards being sported by some of the Wales players – Ledley and Allen took centre stage.

That was a big blow to a midfield already shorn of Aaron Ramsey and a major worry ahead of Sunday’s home clash with Georgia at the Cardiff City Stadium.

The Austria manager said Wales were “lucky” to reach the Euro 2016 semi-finals, a claim Coleman rejected before suggesting teams such as Austria did not perform as well as Wales because they “couldn’t handle the pressure” of the tournament in France.

The influential Allen limped out of the action after 56 minutes with Coleman saying the Stoke midfielder felt a twinge in his hamstring. Allen’s goal arrived after a slight lull and if there was one disappointment for Wales in the first half it was that they could only hold on to their lead for six minutes.

“You’ve got to have those expectations to push yourself as far as you can go”.

“You have to score all types of goals.”People look at us and expect us to play every game as if we are Barcelona or Spain after this summer but sometimes you have to pick a result up and play ugly. If not a win, we’ll want a point and make sure we don’t get beaten”. Austria will beat a lot of teams here, a point is positive.

Top seeds Wales are now top of Group D but face potentially their toughest game of the campaign as they take on second seeds Austria. We have to take the positives from the game, it’s a very hard place to come.

“But Austria has grown up because we were behind twice and equalised, there was no haste in our play. But the reason for our achievements is because we’re a good team”.

“To give them a goal from the restart within two or three minutes. we don’t do things like that”, Coleman added.

“When we don’t play well, we defend solidly as a team, and we get something from the game”.

“There are still many hard games ahead in this group and we need to be fearless in Serbia on Sunday”. Fortunately for Wales, the rebound hit Kevin Wimmer’s trailing leg and trickled over the line to restore their lead.

The winger stole a march on Chris Gunter and cleverly steered David Alaba’s superb pass beyond Hennessey.