Toshack praises Wales effort

Wales boss John Toshack claimed Russia were "flattered" by their 3-1 World Cup win in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Russia and Germany both won their qualifying Group Four matches, and are now set for a showdown next month in Moscow.

But Toshack was pleased with the performance of his side, and said: "The lads did everything that was asked of them. The tactics we worked on beforehand, and the plans we made, were carried out the way we asked them. They were disciplined and we controlled much of the play in the first half."

But Wales were behind at the break after Andriy Arshavin created a fine goal form Igor Semshov.

James Collins equalised for the Welsh soon after the break, but a late free-kick driven in by Sergei Ignashevich and substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko's goal settled the issue.

Toshack said: "There was not too much in it, we conceded at a bad time after doing well and when we equalised I felt we had a chance of making the game very interesting.

"After James Collins' goal we had them on the ropes for a decent spell and could easily have taken the lead.

"But we gave away poor goals at the end, the third was a comedy of errors, and you are punished if you do that.

"But overall I felt the score-line flattered them, we did not deserve to lose by that amount."