Wales had dominated the match and even missed a penalty against the 10-man Azeri side, who had forward Fabio Luis Ramim sent off in the second period.

Jason Koumas had seen his spot-kick, and follow-up effort, saved before 18-year-old Sam Vokes grabbed a late winner in this opening Group Four qualifier.

Toshack said: "I am satisfied with the result and the performance. Azerbaijan have improved considerably over the past two years and they provided a very serious test for us.

"We dominated the match and heads could easily have dropped after the penalty was missed. They were bouncing and our lot were deflated.

"But we kept going, refused to let it bother us for long, and fully deserved the winner. We were easily the better team."

He added: "In such games you have to be patient, but after they went down to 10 men I felt we would be able to do it.

"But I was still pretty nervous right to the end because in such situations you can always see opponents nicking something at the end when you have been on top for a long time.

"Gareth Bale was outstanding, and made the difference for us at times. But I was still pleased and relieved at the end."

Azerbaijan boss Berti Vogts said: "This is a big lesson for us. Most of my players are not used to playing in such a big stadium or on such long grass.

"None of my players perform on anything but very hard pitches with little grass. Only about four of them even had longer studs to use.

"But we have shown that Azerbaijan football has improved. We defended very well."

And he praised Wales' teenage full-backs Bale and Chris Gunter. He said: "Both of them were outstanding, Wales had a lot of very young boys out there who have big futures ahead of them.

"The result is a bad one for us, but I am not a dreamer. I do not believe that anyone other than Germany and Russia will qualify from this group.

"But we must believe that when Russia and Germany come to Baku, we will be able to surprise them."

ends