Wales marked their return to tournament football with an incredible 2-1 victory over Slovakia in Bordeaux. Goals from Gareth Bale and Hal Robson-Kanu, either side of Ondrej Duda's equaliser for Slovakia, secured the win for Wales, in their first match in an international tournament since 1958.
"?Things nearly got off to the worst possible start for Chris Coleman's men, when Napoli midfielder Marik Hamsik ran right through the Welsh defence and fired a shot past Danny Ward, only for Ben Davies to save his side from going behind with a brilliant defensive block.
That may have served as a wake-up call for Wales, and they responded in the best possible way when Gareth Bale opened the scoring with a fantastic free-kick that wrong-footed Slovakia goalkeeper Matus Kosacik, and sent the Welsh faithful into delirium.
The next 20 minutes went by without any incident, until Wales had a very strong penalty claim turned down by the Norwegian officials.
Slovakia captain Martin Skrtel appeared to have driven his elbow into the face of Jonny Williams which, if the referee had caught it, would have surely resulted in a penalty and a red card for the Liverpool man. Nothing was given by the referee, much to the annoyance of the Welsh fans.
15 minutes into the second half, Slovakia got their equaliser. Robert Mak picked up the ball for his side, and after a superb mazy run, he laid it off to Ondrej Duda, who had been on the pitch for a matter of moments, to place past Ward with his first touch of the game.
For the next 20 minutes, Slovakia battered Wales and it was only because of the introductions of Joe Ledley and Hal Robson-Kanu that they managed to turn the tide.
And those substitutions seemed inspired at the 80th minute, when Ledley played the ball into Aaron Ramsey, who stumbled before laying the ball off to Robson-Kanu, to slot past Kozacik into the net, and give his side the victory.
Earlier on in the day, Granit Xhaka won the bragging rights from his brother Taulant after Switzerland beat Albania 1-0 in their group A encounter in Lens.
The Swiss opened the scoring after just five minutes, when a corner from Xherdan Shaqiri wasn't collected by the Albanian 'keeper, allowing defender Fabian Schaer to nod the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
With around 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Albania captain Lorik Cana recieved a second yellow card for handball, leaving his side to play the second half with just 10 men.
Despite the disadvantage, Albania had a golden opportunity to snatch a point from the game when Shkelzen Gashi was clean through 10 minutes from time, only to have his shot saved by Yann Sommer.
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