Wales’ matchwinner Gareth Bale emphasised the importance of points rather than performance af­ter their 2-1 qualifying win against Andorra.

Andorra took a shock lead in the sixth minute last night when Swansea full-back Neil Taylor was adjudged to have pulled the jersey of Ivan Lorenzo in the penalty box, before skipper Ildefons Lima sent Wayne Hennessey the wrong way as the home side scored their first competitive goal for 18 matches.

Wales equalised with Bale’s header after 22 minutes at the Andorra la Vella before the Real Madrid star won the game with a stunning free-kick 10 minutes from time.

“To get us off to a good start is massively important for us,” Bale said. “We ourselves have expecta­tions. We want to qualify and if we are to, we have to come to places like this and get victories.

“(For the free-kick) I tried to hit the sweet spot and luckily enough I did – the important thing for us was to get it out of the way and get three points.”

Wales manager Chris Coleman was delighted with the victory but was highly critical of both the pitch and referee Slavko Vincic.

Simone Zaza scored his first goal for Italy as the Azzurri kicked off 2016 European Championship qualify­ing with a 2-0 victory over Norway.

Striker Zaza – the first ever Sas­suolo player to receive an Italy call-up – impressed on his debut in last week’s friendly win over Holland but made a much bigger impact in Oslo.

His powerful finish in the 16th minute of last night’s Group H encounter gave Antonio Conte’s side the upper hand and Leonardo Bonucci’s second-half header con­firmed the outcome at the Ullevaal Stadion.

A calamitous error of judgement by Dutch defender Daryl Janmaat presented Czech Republic’s Vaclav Pilar with the simplest of added-time winners in Prague last night.

The substitute could not miss when the Newcastle full-back, in trying to deal with Borek Dockal’s cross, headed past goalkeeper Jas­per Cillessen and could only watch as Pilar anticipated the rebound off the post to convert from a couple of yards.

It was a poor way to end the match for the team which had fin­ished third at the World Cup as they had got themselves back into the game when Stefan de Vrij cancelled out Dockal’s opener and looked like finishing the stronger.

It was the Netherland’s first defeat in qualifying in almost three years and will serve as an early warning that, although they are favourites to win Group A, it may not be all plain sailing.