Wales were condemned to a fourth place finish with a relegation Play Off as they went down 3-1 in Norway tonight. In some ways, this was harsh on Craig Bellamy’s side, but they’re operating at the top level in the Nations League now and, although this sounds a bit brutal, they weren’t good enough at both ends of the pitch to acquire the tangible rewards they may feel they were due for some of their play on the night.
Wales were worth their 0-0 half time scoreline as they frustrated the home side and their support by defending in a composed fashion and worked counter attacks with skill and cleverness.
Although Norway upped the pressure and attacked with more confidence as the half went on, Karl Darlow, back between the sticks following the injury which kept him out of the season’s first international break, did not have a shot to save in the first forty five minutes.
Egil Selvik in the Norway goal only had the one save to make in the opening half as well mind, but Wales created the better chances with them all falling to the same player, Dan James.
There were three in all with the Leeds winger being fed by Harry Wilson for the first as he checked back before attempting a rather half hearted chip over the keeper which went about three yards wide.
The second one came from another neat passing movement that saw James arrive for a better hit effort from the edge of the penalty area that flew about a yard wide. In the dying minutes of the half Wales lifted the siege on their goal and with a bit of a lucky break from a deflection, James was set up for a driven angled effort from fifteen yards that Selvik was able to block.
Norway’s most dangerous attacker in the first half was their left winger Antonio Nusa who, despite this, was largely kept in check by Neco Williams. However after an encouraging start to the second half by Wales which saw Brennan Johnson fire into the side netting, it was the young Leipzig winger who broke the deadlock on fifty nine minutes with a shot placed out of Darlow’s reach from the edge of the penalty area.
The goal came from a Norwegian corner which, without seeing a replay of exactly what happened yet, it seemed to me Wales should have dealt with quite easily. As I say, I’ve only seen the actual corner once, but it looked to me as if Darlow should have been able to catch it quite easily. Instead either the keeper opted to punch or Joe Rodon headed it almost out of his hands – either way, it should have been the keeper’s to deal with and the ball was returned with interest by Nusa.
With Jordan James out with an injury he picked up while playing for Wolves against City a fortnight ago, there was a place in midfield going and, to the surprise of barely anyone, Bellamy went with Liam Cullen.
Last season, one of the reasons we heard for Rubin Colwill’s non selection was that he was playing in the third tier – this does not seem to apply to Cullen who, to be fair, wasn’t terrible tonight and made a great block to keep the score at 0-0 or Mark Harris who appeared minutes after Wales conceded as he replaced Lewis Koumas.
Again, Harris had fired off a shot to give Selvik his second save within minutes of his arrival. But he largely disappeared after that and you had to wonder why he was on the pitch and someone like David Brooks was still twiddling his thumbs on the bench.
At the same time as Wales’ change, Norway made a couple of changes of their own and it was one of their subs who seemed to have made the game safe with a second goal on sixty eight minutes.
It was a good goal fashioned down Wales’ right which required a VAR check to see if there was an offside involved early in the move. Erling Haaland, having another quiet game, got an assist to his name, with a precise pass to leave Andreas Schjelderup with a tap in from six yards.
Bellamy reacted by making a triple substitution, Connor Roberts for a hobbling Williams, Brooks for James and, to my amazement, Cullen was replaced by Rubin Colwill.
Wales proceeded to have by far their best attacking spell of the game with Brooks being the catalyst for the change, but Rubin was not far behind him in a situation which enabled him to be seen to best effect.
A superb pass by Colwill set in motion a move which ended with Ethan Ampadu coming as close as he has ever done to netting his first goal for his country as his twenty yard shot was superbly tipped on to the crossbar and over by Selvik.
The one slight black mark for Colwill came when presented with a ball that had to be hit first time from the edge of the penalty area – it was a decent chance and the contact he made was good, but the shot flew straight at Selvik in an echo of City’s recent scoreless afternoons at Bolton and Wolverhampton.
However, when Brooks was played in by Wilson he showed a mixture of power, speed and skill as he held off a defender to finish superbly with a clip over the keeper.
For a while, Norway looked a bit rattled, but any hopes of a Welsh comeback were ended by a third Norwegian goal – a goal which should have been avoided.
Ben Davies was a candidate for Welsh man of the match, but he was at fault when his weak header from a long ball forward brought Haaland, who had been stood in an offside position, into play and he slipped Schjelderup in on goal only to be brought down by Roberts for what was a clear penalty.
Haaland easily beat Darlow from the spot to score his first goal against Wales and there could have been further Norway goals after Johnson had again shot into the side netting. That would have been unfair on Wales who put in a performance which maybe suggested better days ahead if they can improve their work in the final third of the pitch and discover a good young goalkeeper – that second bit may be easier said than done though!
Just the one game involving the Rhondda sides the blog follows today – Treorchy Boys and Girls Club continued their struggles in the Highadmit Welsh Alliance Division One {East) with a 4-2 loss at Tongwynlais.
I’ll finish by saying that about fifty years ago at the age of twenty, I set myself two lifetime spectating sporting targets – the first was to watch City play in the top flight and the second see Wales beat the All Blacks. By the time I reached thirty five, I was becoming resigned to neither of them happening, but City came good around twenty years later as my first experience of watching my team play in the First Division/Premier League ended with us beating moneybags Manchester City, the team that would win the Premier League title that season.
Wales were never going to beat the All Blacks though were they. Incredibly, they won three out of the first four meetings with New Zealand with the last of them coming in 1953. Since then, it had been played thirty four, lost thirty four and I barely gave this afternoon’s latest encounter with the blacks a second thought. However, two unanswered tries in the first six minutes offered a small beacon of hope for the side who were being given a thirty two point start in handicap betting.
For the next fifty minutes or so, both sides swapped tries. Amazingly, Wales had scored five of them by the fiftieth minute, but a fourth All Blacks try left it 35-28 in our favour with twenty five minutes left and from there it became like a game of attack v defence. On this occasion, the defenders won by not allowing their opponents a single point, despite there being three occasions when our line was crossed but the ball not grounded.
Okay, it was a rotated All Blacks team and rugby means a lot less to me than it once did, but warm congratulations to all involved on the playing side (not the “blazers” in the Committee rooms) – you’ve made an old man proud of you because you’ve done something I’d long considered impossible.
