Wrexham focusing on their own business with promotion within reach

By Sports Desk April 09, 2024

Wrexham must continue to look after their own business in their quest for League Two promotion after the 4-1 victory over Crawley, vowed Dragons assistant Steve Parkin.

Ryan Barnett’s maiden Wrexham goal put the hosts ahead and Paul Mullin swiftly doubled the advantage, before Andy Cannon’s strike’s and Mullin’s second as full-time approached were followed by Klaidi Lolos netting an injury time consolation.

Wrexham consolidated their top three place and victory on Saturday against Forest Green coupled with other favourable results will confirm back-to-back promotions and League One football next season, but Parkin vowed the Dragons must focus on themselves.

Parkin said: “We worked long and hard over the weekend about Crawley and how good they were away from home.

“We set our game plan to the lads that we thought would be enough to create chances and the lads stuck to it with the exception of the last goal so well.

“We thought we would create chances and opportunities on the break. When you do that you have to be clinical and put your chances away and it was a really clinical performance.

“This time of year we know and we’ve seen from results how difficult wins are to come by. More or less everybody has got something to play for, teams at the bottom and the teams trying to get in the play-offs, and the teams at the top.

“There’s going to be no let-up from them I’m sure to try and get promotion and we’ve just got to take care of our business and make sure we’re on it at the weekend.”

Crawley remain in the play-offs and boss Scott Lindsay insists the loss will not define the rest of their campaign as they seek a top-seven finish.

He said: “We’re disappointed with the outcome of the game but it’s not going to define what we’re going to do moving forward. We’re still in a really good position and we’ve got some really good games to come and we look forward to them.

“It’s a difficult place to come and the manner of the goals we conceded was disappointing but we wipe our mouth and move on and we’ve got to move on pretty quickly.

“It’s a tough place to come and we wanted to ask more questions of them. At least three of their goals were inside our six-yard box.

“You’ve got to sometimes give the opposition credit, we had a lot of possession, we got to the edge of the box and we huffed and puffed a little bit and we found it hard to break them down.

“It was a difficult night for us but we’re not going to let that define our season, because it won’t.”

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    Lautaro Martinez struck a late winner as Argentina beat Chile 1-0 to secure their place in the Copa America knockout stages with a game to spare.

    The reigning champions looked like they would have to settle for a point on a frustrating night at the MetLife Stadium, having failed to turn their superiority into the game's opening goal.

    But substitute Martinez, who also netted from the bench in his nation's opener against Canada, finally broke Chile's resolve when he lashed home two minutes from time.

    It moved Lionel Scaloni's side onto six points at the Group A summit, three points ahead of Canada, who beat Peru 1-0 earlier in the day. A draw against Peru in their final game will now be enough to secure top spot.

    Argentina dominated the first half with 13 unanswered shots, yet just three of those were on target. One of them saw Julian Alvarez fire straight at Claudio Bravo from close range in the 22nd minute.

    Lionel Messi also went close to scoring in the 36th minute. La Albiceleste's skipper let fly with a fizzing 25-yard attempt that clipped the outside of Bravo's left post, while Erick Pulgar almost turned Nahuel Molina's cross beyond the Chile goalkeeper two minutes later.

    La Roja had Bravo to thank for keeping Argentina at bay, as the reigning champions continued to carry the greater attacking threat after the break.

    The veteran stopper beat away Molina's fierce strike within five minutes of the restart, and just after the hour mark, he produced a superb reflex save to tip Nicolas Gonzalez's drive onto the crossbar.

    With the breakthrough still eluding the world champions, Scaloni bolstered his attack by introducing Angel Di Maria and Martinez for the final 17 minutes.

    Chile had increased their own attacking threat by registering their first attempts on goal in the contest, with Rodrigo Echeverria calling Emiliano Martinez into action on both occasions.

    Yet, there was to be a late twist in Argentina's favour when an 88th-minute corner broke kindly for Martinez, who reacted quickest to fire into the roof of the net and send La Albiceleste through to the quarter-finals.

    Persistence pays dividends for Argentina

    The history books would have suggested Argentina should have fancied their chances against Chile.

    This is epitomised by the fact they are now unbeaten after 90 minutes in the last 13 meetings, winning eight of those, but that does not tell the full story.

    Seven of those eight victories have only been by a single-goal margin and, of course, they lost on penalties in the Copa America final showdowns of 2015 and 2016.

    Though they dominated most of this contest and registered 22 shots to their opponents' three, just the one goal was enough once more, with both of Martinez's strikes from the bench in this competition coming in the 88th minute.

    Argentina progress to the Copa America knockout stages for a 14th consecutive time, excluding when they withdrew from the 2001 tournament.

    Toothless Roja see resistance broken

    Chile looked set to frustrate Argentina once again at the Copa America and hold out for a second successive clean sheet.

    Their defensive resolve - along with an inspired performance by Bravo between the sticks - looked like it would remain firm and keep the reigning champions at bay, until Martinez's late intervention.

    What will be more concerning for La Roja is the fact they have now gone four successive Copa America matches without scoring, while having to wait until the 72nd minute for their first attempt on goal.

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    Referee Facundo Tello waved away Scotland's appeals, and a subsequent check by VAR deemed the challenge not worthy of awarding a spot-kick. 

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    “I've got other words, but I'm not going to use them. I don't understand how VAR can look at that and say it's not a penalty.

    “In a European competition, it may have been better to have a European referee but we had European VAR and maybe a referee didn't see the challenge clearly on the pitch, so what's the purpose of VAR if they are not going to come in on something like that. It was a penalty.”

    Having qualified for successive European Championships, this was Scotland’s 12th major tournament group stage, and in 50% of those they have failed to win a single match – at the 1954, 1958, 1986, and 1998 World Cups and EURO 2020 and 2024.

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  • Euro 2024 Data Dive: Late goals and broken records tee up dramatic finish to Group A Euro 2024 Data Dive: Late goals and broken records tee up dramatic finish to Group A

    Sunday's action at Euro 2024 saw the conclusion of Group A, with late drama ensuring a last-gasp shake up to the standings.

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    Meanwhile, Scotland crashed out of the tournament without a win after conceding the latest goal ever scored at the Euros, with Hungary keeping their hopes of knockout football alive with their 1-0 victory.

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    Switzerland 1-1 Germany: Neuer makes history, but Fullkrug grabs headlines

    Having already qualified for the last 16, the hosts left it late to seal top spot in the group, needing Fullkrug to make a much-needed impact off the bench in Frankfurt.

    Dan Ndoye had given Switzerland a first-half lead with his maiden international goal to become the nation's second-youngest goalscorer at the Euros (aged 23 years 242 days), but Switzerland could not hold on.

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    Julian Nagelsmann named the same starting XI for three consecutive games, the first time Germany have done so in the competition's history, though it looked like tiredness was starting to take its toll as they struggled to break down their opponents.

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    Having completed 323 passes so far at Euro 2024, Kroos has made the joint-most on record (since 1980) by a player in the group stage since himself at Euro 2016 (also 323).

    Germany eventually had 18 shots, with Fullkrug picking out the top corner with the final one; the striker has scored 13 goals in just 19 international appearances, while his four as a substitute at major tournaments are more than any other European player.

    Despite ultimately losing out on top spot, Switzerland have now gone unbeaten in their last four games against Die Mannschaft (W1 D3), with no nation currently enjoying a longer unbeaten streak against Germany (England and Spain both have ongoing runs of four).

    Scotland 0-1 Hungary: Csoboth breaks Tartan Army's hearts

    Meanwhile in Stuttgart, it was Hungary celebrating a late strike to seal a 1-0 victory that ensured an early exit for Scotland as they chased what would have been a landmark win.

    Kevin Csoboth cemented his place in European Championship history with his counter-attacking finish as he netted the latest goal ever scored in the tournament's history (excluding extra time), timed at 99 minutes and 32 seconds.

    Despite needing a win to finish third, Scotland failed to have a single shot on target in the game. In total, the Tartan Army had just 17 shots at Euro 2024 – since the group stage was introduced in 1980, it is the joint-fewest by a national team, along with Northern Ireland at Euro 2016.

    Indeed, only twice at Euro 2024 has a team failed to manage a shot on target in the first half of a match and both have been Scotland (also on MD 1 against Germany).

    Scotland pushed numbers forward for their last-minute corner with the hopes of reaching the knockout stage of the Euros for the first time, but instead will leave a major tournament group stage without a win for the sixth time (1954, 1958, 1986 and 1998 World Cups and Euro 2020 and 2024).

    While looking down and out after failing to win either of their opening games, Hungary finally ended a run of eight games in the competition without a win, registering their first victory since beating Austria 2-0 at Euro 2016 – this was also their first clean sheet since that win.

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