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Evans double fires Wales U21 to win

Evans: Celebrates with team-mates

Ched Evans scored twice as Wales Under-21s kept their European Championship qualification hopes alive with a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Evans' second-half double at the Racecourse Ground - his 13th and 14th in 12 outings for Brian Flynn's runaway Group Three leaders - ensures Wales complete their home programme with a 100% record.

The two sides meet again in Sarajevo next month and Wales must travel to Italy and Hungary next year, but they remain in the driving seat to reach the play-offs for a second successive campaign.

Wales were forced to play a patient game as the visitors kept plenty of men behind the ball and defended in depth, a tactic which paid handsome dividends for them in the opening 20 minutes of the match.

Although the home side probed continuously, they were unable to carve out too many clear-cut chances and Bosnian goalkeeper Ibrahim Sehic was barely troubled.

It was the visitors, always looking to play on the break, who posed the first real threat on 27 minutes when Josep Coric broke clear from the halfway line and was just lining up his shot before being dispossessed in a fine challenge by Wrexham's Neil Taylor, playing on his home ground.

A lack of urgency from Wales combined with an absence of genuine pace up front meant set-pieces offered the best hopes of a breakthrough, but too often the delivery was poor.

And the home side squandered their only real opportunity of the half two minutes before the break when Christian Ribeiro pulled the ball back for Nathan Craig, who screwed his shot wide from 10 yards.

The Everton youngster went close to making amends in the 46th minute with a fierce first-time effort that Sehic did well to turn away for a corner as Wales continued to dominate both possession and territory.

And their persistence finally paid off in the 56th minute when Craig's free-kick was helped on by Marc Williams for Evans to head past Sehic.

Bosnia - forced to come out of their shell - came close to an equaliser within four minutes, Nebosja Pejic volleying wide as the home defence came under pressure for the first time.

And goalkeeper Chris Maxwell, thus far a virtual spectator, was fortunate not to be punished by Pejic when he made a hash of an attempted clearance but regained control of the ball at the second attempt.

At the other end, Sehic kept his side in the hunt with a fine 78th-minute save from Williams, but Evans rounded it off three minutes into added time with a deflected shot which looped over the goalkeeper.