Gareth Bale continued his brilliant scoring run but could not do enough to deny Croatia coming from behind to beat Wales 2-1 in Swansea tonight.
The Tottenham ace converted a 21st minute penalty after Celtic's Joe Ledley had been brought down in the area by Dejan Lovren, coolly slotting home for his 12th goal in his last 13 appearances for both club and country.
With less than 15 minutes remaining, it seemed as though Chris Coleman's Dragons would move up to third on the Group A table with a narrow victory but Lyon's Lovren atoned for his earlier mistake by sending home a goal-bound shot which Wales keeper Boaz Myhill struggled to keep out.
That had Igor Stimac's men up and about and with only three minutes remaining, Shakhtar Donetsk's Eduardo da Silva gave Croatia all three points by volleying home to send his adopted nation equal on 16 points with group leaders Belgium who beat Macedonia 1-0 thanks to an Eden Hazard winner.
