Wales claimed a hard fought 2-1 victory over Slovakia in Group B in their opening Euro 2016 clash.

Wales started the match off with some momentum with Gareth Bale immediately chasing down goalkeeper Matús Kozacik, putting pressure on him to rush his kick.

The first chance of the match fell to Marek Hamsik, who tore the Wales defence apart, bursting from just inside the Wales half, beating several players and finding himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Danny Ward. He put the ball past the goalkeeper, but Ben Davies slid in and to clear the ball off the line.

Ten minutes into the match Jonny Williams was tripped by Patrik Hrosovsky in a dangerous position. Bale stepped up to take the free-kick and the Real Madrid star smashed the ball over the wall and into the back of the net to hand Wales the lead making it 1-0.

Bale received the ball from Hrosovsky in midfield and after exchanging passes with Williams, Aaron Ramsey, the world’s most expensive player fired a 20-yard effort straight down the throat of the goalkeeper with just 20 minutes on the clock.

Two minutes later the Wales skipper almost made it 2-0, spotting the Slovakian goalkeeper off his line and attempting to lob him from inside his own half but the shot was misdirected and finished nowhere near the intended target.

The first booking of the game came in the 31st minute when Hrosovsky fouled Williams, despite winning the ball, the referee wan’t impressed with the midfielder’s aggressive tackle.

A minute later Williams chased down a high ball near the touchline before Slovakia captain Martin Skrtel stepped across his line and aimed an elbow at the Wales forward, knocking him over. It looked to be a clear penalty, but referee waved play on much to the Welsh fans disgust.

A rare shot on target from Slovakia five minutes from the half-time break, as Kucka tried his luck from 25 yards but it lacked power and Ward was able to trap it with his feet.

Slovakia started to look a bit more dangerous during the closing stages of the first-half. Dusan Svento and Weiss exchanged passes. Weiss tried to beat Ward from a tight angle, but his low effort was easily claimed by the young goalkeeper.

Slovakia could’ve have levelled matters from the corner, but Weiss’ in-swinger was headed away by Bale. The ball was then put back into the area and Skrtel beat the offside trap, but couldn’t get his head on it as it bounced just past the post and away from danger.

The first corner of the match came in the 51st minute, Ramsey stepped up to take the corner but his cross was well claimed by goalkeeper Kozacik.

Three minutes later Bale tried to get between Skrtel and Jan Durica on the touchline, but the Slovakia centre-backs did well to see off the danger.

Slovakia’s first chance of the second-half came in the 55th minute when Robert Mak got in behind the Wales defence. He reached a long and low pass from inside his own half and got the better of Williams but failed to test the goalkeeper as blasted his shot over the top.

Sloviakia leveled matters in the 61st minute as substitute Ondrej Duda  fired home with his first touch of the match.

Moments later a Kucka shot forces Ward into make a decent save to give away a corner, but the Welsh goalkeeper dealt with the in-swinging corner to ease the pressure.

Wales lost their momentum since conceding the goal and struggled to string passes together as fluently as they had been for the first hour, while Slovakia.

Substitute Hal Robson-Kanu injected some energy into the Wales attack, whipping in a cross in from the right. Ramsey was on hand to challenge for the ball, but jumped too early and headed over.

Minutes after coming on as a subsitute Robson-Kanu gave Wales the lead after a great ball from Joe Ledley found Ramsey, the Arsenal star did well to beat Skrtel before laying it off for the striker to put the ball pass the Slovakian goalkeeper.

Five minutes later Slovakia almost levelled matters once again after substitute Adam Nemec headed the ball past Ward, only to be denied by the post.

In the closing stages of the match Bale did brilliantly to carry the ball forward to set up Ramsey inside the area. However, the midfielder took far too long and failed to get his shot away.

Goals from Bale and Robson-Kanu were enough to secure a 2-1 victory over Slovakia 2-1 in their opening Euro 2016 clash.