Wales - 4 Azerbaijan - 0 Try as he might to stifle it, Wales manager Mark Hughes has got the Welsh dragon breathing fire over everything in its path on the way to the Euro 2004 finals.
Hughes' pin-drop voice and meek off-field persona are at odds both with his bullish reputation as a player in earlier days and the ear-bursting passion his team's four straight wins in Group Nine have engendered in the nation's longsuffering soccer fans.
Saturday's impressive 4-0 victory over Azerbaijan in front of another full house at the Millennium Stadium kept Wales on course to reach their first major international tournament since the 1958 World Cup.
In contrast to that of the fans, Hughes' own response was characteristically low key. "We're on the front foot now and we want to go forward and complete the task," he said. "But there is a long way to go."
Once it was the rugby team that impassioned Welsh hearts. But Saturday's victory, immediately after Wales had lost their Six Nations rugby match in France confirmed the switch of affection from oval ball to round.
Azerbaijan, some of whose team have been playing five-a-side because their domestic season is in chaos, never stood a chance from the moment they put through their own net after only 13 seconds when a Ryan Giggs cross caused mayhem in their defence.
Further goals by Gary Speed, red-hot Celtic striker John Hartson and Giggs wrapped up a win that had the 73,000 strong red hordes chanting "are you watching Eng-er-land".
WALES: Paul Jones, Davies, Melville, Page, Speed (Trollope 45), Oster, Savage (Carl Robinson 19), Pembridge, Giggs, Bellamy (Robert Edwards 72), Hartson. Subs Not Used: Ward, Blake, Taylor, Earnshaw. Goals: Bellamy 1, Speed 40, Hartson 44, Giggs 52.
AZERBAIJAN: Hasanzade, Akhmedov, Kamal Guliyev, Aliyev (Tagizade 78), Emin Guliyev (Yadullaev 46), Hasjivev (Mahammadov 46), Makhmud Gurbanov, Ramiz Mamedov, Gurban Gurbanov, Imamaliyev, Ruslan Musayev. Subs Not Used: Zeynalov, Khagani Mamedov, Samir Musayev, Fizuli Mamedov. Booked: Ramiz Mamedov, Mahammadov, Makhmud Gurbanov.
Referee: Philippe Leuba (Switzerland).
