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Ryan Giggs had to wait for quite a long time for his first full-time job as a manager, but he finally stepped out on the pitch for the first time today as the Wales manager this evening in a 6-0 humiliation of China in the Guangxi Sports Center Stadium.
In a tournament where the Football Association of Wales would have lost £100,000 of their reported £1 million participation fee had Gareth Bale not featured, Giggs was quick to avoid that fate for his national team by naming the Real Madrid winger in his first starting lineup.
What conspired, however, would perhaps be something that China didn’t see coming as Wales went on to record their biggest victory, in terms of margin, since 1996, when they beat San Marino by the same scoreline. Conversely, this was the biggest margin of defeat for China’s manager Marcello Lippi – a former World Cup-winning manager with Italy.
Gareth Bale’s hat-trick saw him take his international goal tally to 29 and overtake Ian Rush as the country’s all-time leading goalscorer. It was also his first hat-trick for his national team, making him the first player to do so for Wales since Robert Earnshaw scored one in 2004. Sam Vokes proved to be an effective supporting cast as he scored two and assisted another couple to help his team reach the final of the China Cup, scheduled to be played on Monday.
There couldn’t have been a better start to the Ryan Giggs era at Wales, and fans would be hoping that these are signs of positive things to come from the Manchester United legend.
They now await the winners of the match between Uruguay and the Czech Republic that will be played tomorrow.
Twitter reacted to this milestone friendly match for Wales, and here are some of the best tweets:
