Proof that a home “nil” does not have to bring on an attack of despair.

As always seems to happen in games at Cardiff City Stadium these days when there are points at stake, the home team didn’t score, but at least they didn’t lose and most unusually, in fact uniquely in the last four years probably, the team were warmly applauded off the pitch by the home crowd.

That last bit should tell you that things weren’t quite normal on this occasion and the explanation was, of course, that the home team weren’t Erol Bulut’s Cardiff City, they were Craig Bellamy’s Wales.

Yes, in his first game as Wales’ manager, the man who has been tipped as a future City boss on many occasions had his side playing in an exciting, attractive and high tempo manner – a method of play which gets people on your side even if it is not always successful.

As I’ve said once or twice on here before, when you send your team out to play in home games in the turgid and functional style, almost always played at a slow pace, seen under most of Cardiff City’s recent managers, you really need to make sure your team is winning most weeks – play like Bellamy’s team did tonight and you’ll have people wanting to come back for more.

That’s not to say that tonight’s goalless draw with Turkey in the opening fixture in the latest Nations League tournament was not without its faults. For three quarters of the match, Wales harried and hassled the Quarter Finalists from the summer’s Euros to distraction with their high tempo positivity and pressing without quite being able to find the goal they richly deserved. However, the dismissal of visiting striker Baris Yilmaz for a foul on Neco Williams which earned him a second yellow card, brought about a change as Wales could maybe have done with a touch more composure and thought as they pressed, but not in the manner the term has come to mean nowadays – it was more that the quick pace tended to look frenetic.

The Welsh team selection left people none the wiser when It came to trying to figure out what formation would be used and who would be used where within it. Now, I’ve read recently that formations as such are a thing of the past, it’s all about tactical flexibility these days and the way Bellamy’s Wales played rather suggested that there might be something to this because, having watched his team in action for ninety minutes, I’m still not sure what their formation was.

For example, was it a back four Wales played? Well, Williams definitely looked an attack minded left back and Ben Davies and Joe Rodon were certainly the centre backs, but Connor Roberts played as a kind of inverted right sided defensively minded operator who was not quite a third centre back or a full back.

Jordan James’ default position appeared to be wide on the left for much of the time which meant that Ethan Ampadu was often the sole central midfielder with any help he got as likely to come from Aaron Ramsey who was a kind of joint false nine/number ten with Harry Wilson as it was from James. This left Brennan Johnson on the right and the right footed Sorba Thomas on the left with the latter more likely to try to go past his marker on the outside rather than as an inverted winger looking to get shots away as he cut inside.

Even the goalkeeper had a different role as Danny Ward spent a lot of time outside his penalty area as an extra body trying to help create the two on ones and three on twos that seems to be the main purpose of tactical coaching these days. The risks with involving a keeper so much in general play were all too plain to see at times and you just know it’s going to go spectacularly wrong occasionally, but Bellamy will I’m pretty sure stick to his guns.

All of this made for a compelling first half especially which bristled with action and quite a bit of needle which saw three Turks (four if you include manager Vincenzo Montella) and two Welshmen yellow carded. 

Most of the meaningful action during the opening half took place around the Turkish goal as Ramsey headed just wide early on and Rodon was the last outfield Welsh player you wanted to be on the end of Wilson’s free kick to the far post as, completely unmarked, he was never in control of his shot from eight yards that flew well over. With quicker and cleverer players around him, Ramsey was seen to better effect than he has been in recent City games and his fine pass sent Thomas in on goal to lob the ball over the keeper and into the net only for the goal to be ruled out by a very marginal looking offside decision, but, in these days of VAR, there’s no argument about these type of decisions is there.

Thomas wasn’t far wide with a shot from about twenty five yards in the opening minutes of the second half either, but Wilson, who I thought wasn’t quite fully match sharp after having not played too much for Fulham so far this season, was much closer from five yards closer in when his shot beat keeper Gunok, but flew inches wide.

Johnson slashed at a shot from close in late on which was deflected wide, but the closest we came to a goal in the dying minutes was probably when Ward held on to a header from a corner by Ayhan.

At under 17 level, Wales have had a 5-0 wins this week against Gibraltar and it looks like they were beaten 2-1 by Qatar today (I’ve seen three different scores foe this match so far, but 2-1 looks correct) – City’s Noah Williams was in the starting line up. Ronan Kpakio captained the under 18s in their first match in what seems to be a six team tournament called the Jezebel Cup – that finished 0-0 against the Czech Republic and today there was a 3-2 win over Slovakia with Kpakio coming on as a sub this time as did his City colleagues Jake Davies and Jac Thomas to leave Wales second, behind Germany, in the current table .