Montenegro 1 Wales 0
A narrow defeat in Montenegro saw Wales begin their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign on the backfoot.
The only goal of the game was scored by Montenegro captain Mirko Vucinic after half an hour.
Wales substitute Simon Church saw a header come back off the crossbar and was later flagged off-side when he fired in the rebound after a shot by fellow striker Rob Earnshaw.
Montenegro had the chance to make sure of victory late on but goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey saved well from Simon Vukcevic.
Wales face an uphill struggle to make any impact in Group G with their next opponents being England, Switzerland and Bulgaria.
Montenegro exerted their authority early on and Wales fell behind after 30 minutes to a fine goal by Vucinic.
Defender James Collins will be embarrassed by how easily he was turned by the Roma striker and he placed his left-foot shot in off Hennessey’s right-hand post as the Wolves keeper anticipated a ball across him.
The goal did at least provoke a response from Wales who saw Millwall striker Steve Morison see a penalty appeal turned down.
Cardiff City striker Craig Bellamy could not believe his luck when a diverted cross from Gareth Bale fell into his path but he sliced his effort wide.
Reading striker Church came on for Morison and almost scored an equaliser. First of all he smacked a header off the crossbar and was later caught fractionally off-side after sliding home a rebound from Earnshaw’s shot which was too-hot-to-handle for keeper Mladen Bozovic.
Montenegro should have scored a second deep in injury time but Hennessey made amends for a nervous performance, saving well one-on-one to deny Vukcevic.
