Chis Coleman praised his team for their fighting spirit and Gareth Bale pointed to their maturity after Wales came away from Vienna with a valuable point in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
The Wales manager admitted his side were not at their best in the 2-2 draw against Austria, who twice came from behind and threatened to claim victory.
But Coleman said Wales “found a way” as they settled for a point following goals from Joe Allen and a Kevin Wimmer own goal which were levelled by Marco Arnautovic’s two superb equalisers.
The result leaves Wales – on four points – level with three other teams in Group D and Coleman conceded his high-flying side “rode their luck at times.”
Coleman admitted: “It wasn’t our best performance but if you look at Austria’s record here it’s second to none. It’s fantastic.
“They are a very good team and we knew we’d be up against it. If we wanted to take the three points we needed to be on top of our game in every department and we weren’t.
“But we found a way – by hook or by crook. We were riding our luck at times. We might have won it ourselves.”
Bale, who had a subdued evening by his standards, agreed with his manager that Wales were far from their best.
Bale said: “It’s a difficult place to come if you look at their record in qualifying. They didn’t lose at all (in qualifying for the Euros) and drew one game. We know we weren’t at our best tonight. It was a difficult game, they’re a very good team.
“This is what we’ve grown up to do – we grind out results when we need them. When we don’t play well we defend solidly as a team. We get something from the game.
“We were frustrated. We know we didn’t play well enough tonight. They made it very difficult for us there wasn’t much space up front.
“Ultimately we would have loved to have played better and won the game. We have to take the positives from the game, it’s a very difficult place to come. We grinded out a two-all.”
It was the kind of slackening of grip by Wales that would have led to inevitable defeat in times past, but the current team have a grittiness that allows them to survive under pressure.
Wales did well to slow the early tempo but the game burst into life after 22 minutes when Bale surged down the left.
Sam Vokes missed his cross at the near post, but Gunter’s good work allowed Allen to score with a left-footed volley which flew past Almer.
Austria were level within six minutes as Alaba’s flighted ball allowed Arnautovic to score with a clever downward header as the ball bounced off the turf.
Hennessey had no chance with that imaginative finish, but the Crystal Palace goalkeeper was equal to Zlatko Junuzovic’s near-post effort and a testing deflection following Florian Klein’s strong run.
But Wales were back ahead on the stroke of half-time as Vokes flicked on Bale’s long throw. Chester prodded goalwards and Almer saved only for the rebound to strike Wimmer and divert into his own own net.
Arnautovic equalised again three minutes after the re-start when he seized on Allen’s misdirected pass and scampered through a huge hole in the Wales defence.
Austria had the better of the contest after that but Hennessey was only tested in the closing stages by substitute Alessandro Schopf.
