Aaron Ramsey inspired Wales to a 3-0 win over Scotland in their friendly clash at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Gunners starlet leads Wales to comfortable win
Aaron Ramsey inspired Wales to a 3-0 win over Scotland in their friendly clash at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The Arsenal midfielder scored one and played a major role in the other two goals as Wales piled the pressure on under-fire Scotland boss George Burley.
Wales broke the deadlock 17 minutes when Ramsey crossed from the right for Dave Edwards to acrobatically volley the ball past David Marshall in the Scotland goal.
John Toshack's men doubled their advantage on 32 minutes when Ramsey slipped in Joe Ledley inside the box and he squared the ball across the face of goal for Simon Church to poke home his first goal for Wales.
The impressive Ramsey made it 3-0 three minutes later with a superb solo effort as he went on a great run past Stephen McManus and Darren Fletcher before slotting the ball past Marshall.
Celtic's Daniel Fox made his Scotland debut at left-back and almost created a goal for James McFadden early on with a cross that the Birmingham forward caught first time, but Wayne Hennessey saved with his legs.
Scotland had Wales pinned back and Kenny Miller came close with a low drive.
Slowly, though, Wales came into the game with Ramsey pulling the strings from midfield.
Opener
The Arsenal teenager combined with Sam Ricketts on the right as the hosts grabbed a 17th minute lead.
Ricketts played Ramsey in behind Fox, and the pulled-back cross was volleyed in from 12 yards by Edwards.
Ramsey was really into full flow and after 32 minutes his cross-field ball found Ledley, with the Cardiff man striking his cross to the near post for Church to turn past Marshall.
Three minutes later Wales had their third - a stunning solo goal from Ramsey.
He went past McManus and Fletcher in a superb run from midfield before driving a low effort beyond Marshall.
The Cardiff goalkeeper then kept out a close-range drive from Ledley as Wales continued to press forward.
By the interval, the Scots were in shock. Their fans booed when Burley's picture appeared on the giant television screens and the team were jeered off.
Lucky escape
Wales brought on Sam Vokes and Robert Earnshaw for Church and Ched Evans, and within a minute Marshall was lucky not to be dismissed when he rushed out of his box and handled a Vokes chip.
Swiss referee Cyril Zimmermann decided the challenge was only worthy of a yellow card.
Scotland sent on Steven Fletcher for Miller and Lee Wallace for Fox, while Wales took off Ramsey to give Joe Allen a run in midfield.
Scotland must have been pleased to see the back of Ramsey, who was clearly being rested with a vital midweek Under 21 game in Bosnia in mind.
Wales then felt able to give Danny Gabbidon a run-out in defence in place of Lewin Nyatanga, as the West Ham defender returned from two months out with a calf injury.
The rotation of substitutes continued with the Scots replacing Steven Naismith, McFadden, Graham Dorrans and Don Cowie with Ross McCormack, Kevin Kyle, Barry Robson and Derek Riordan but Burley's side only marginally improved.
Hennessey had not been really tested, although he did have to turn over a McCormack chip and block a Riordan drive in the closing 10 minutes.
Wales also rang the changes but did not relinquish control of the contest as Scotland were left to contemplate an embarrassing loss.