Wales women make history by reaching World Cup play off
A goalless draw against Slovenia was enough to see them through
Wales' women's coach Gemma Grainger says her side deserve their World Cup play off place after a goalless draw against Slovenia saw them go through to next month's knock out stage.
A year ago, just 1700 fans watched the start of their World Cup Campaign against Kazakhstan in Llanelli while last night more than 12,700 turned out at the Cardiff City Stadium - record crowd for a Wales' women's international.
Head coach Grainger said: "I'm so happy for the players. That performance they put in, they deserve everything they got.
"We wanted to deliver the game plan and they did that.
"I knew from the moment the players arrived at the stadium the levels of concentration they had.
"That they executed that is the next step for us as a team."
Grainger said: "I think in the first 20 minutes we took time to settle, it was the same for Slovenia.
"But we grew into the game and by the end of the first half I think our plan was clear.
"We've created some very good chances, but ultimately we wanted to get a clean sheet and that's what we've done.
"Overall I felt we had the better chances and managed the game well, and our objective has been met."
Grainger will attend Friday's play-off draw in Switzerland.
The ties will consist of a semi-final and final, each one leg, to be played on October 6 and October 11.
Wales will be involved in the first round of semi-final games with five other sides.
The three teams with the best qualifying records will be waiting for the three victorious semi-finalists at the final stage.
"We don't have a preference who we play," said Grainger, whose potential play-off opponents include Austria, Scotland and Portugal.
"One of the mistakes that teams can make in qualification campaigns is talk about things before they happen.
"But you can see when we play friendly games we play against higher-ranked opposition because that's who we want to face.
"We know that we want to be a tournament team and we want to put in performances like we did tonight.
"From last September (the opening qualifier against Kazakhstan) we've built gradually, and we want to keep doing."