Ben Davies reveals Wales’ pact pays off in victory over Montenegro

Ben Davies revealed the Wales camp made a no excuses pact ahead of their Nations League victory in Montenegro.

Wales claimed a memorable 2-1 win in Niksic on a night when goals from Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson provided a dream start inside three minutes.

The build-up to the Group B4 game was mired in controversy after the venue was switched from the capital Podgorica at short notice, leaving Niksic’s 5,000-capacity City Stadium to stage a Montenegro men’s senior international for the first time.

Wales then had to withstand torrential rain that turned the contest into a farce at times, as the pitch cut up badly and players regularly lost their footing on the saturated surface.

Favourites

“On paper people might say we’re favourites and may have better players,” said Davies, skipper for the night with Aaron Ramsey left on the bench before coming on as a second-half substitute.

“But the reality is when you come to places like this these are some of the hardest games you’ll play.

“It’s the conditions, the atmosphere, the travel. It’s all against you.

“But as a group we made a pact to say that we’re not going to have any excuses. Before we got here we were ready.

“You could see that by the way we started. We came out with loads of energy.

“We tried to play similar football to the way we did against Turkey, but we soon realised the conditions weren’t really there for that. We had to adapt and that’s what we did.”

Wales began their Nations League campaign under new boss Craig Bellamy on Friday with a positive performance at home to Euro 2024 quarter-finalists Turkey.

On that occasion, Wales could not find the goal their display deserved.

But four points from two games represents a healthy Nations League total ahead of next month’s trip to Iceland and the Montenegro return fixture in Cardiff.

Kick on

Davies said: “It’s a great start and we can really kick on as a team.

“We’ve worked hard in the one week we’ve had (with Bellamy) and you’ve seen the results and performance that we’ve had. It’s very exciting times.

“In games like that it becomes a bit more of a fight than about the quality we are capable of. We gave our all and sometimes you get as much enjoyment out of games like those.

“There’s probably a million things we could have come up with that were against us. We could easily have made an excuse that it’s going to be a tough game, try and get a point and win our games at home.

“But we showed guts, no worries, and we enjoyed it.”

Swansea’s Ollie Cooper made his first start in the Wales midfield after a couple of substitute appearances.

“It was amazing, what you dream of,” said Cooper. “I had a taste coming on the other day and you always want more.

“The new style is perfect for me. To dominate the ball, high press. It’s something I believe I can help the team with.”