The latest round of the seemingly never ending Wales v Belgium rivalry saw the World’s current number two side beat the ream ranked nineteen 2-1. Wales, minus their four most experienced outfield players (Gareth Bale did come on for the last half an hour or so, but Ben Davies, Joe Allen and Aaron Ramsey were all missing with injuries with Harry Wilson being another notable absentee),were, frankly, played off the park for forty five minutes and would have been very grateful to have only been two down, but a goal early in the second half made for a much more competitive last forty five minutes.
I think I’m right in saying that Belgium now have three wins to our two in a series of nine matches that began with a 2-0 defeat at Cardiff City Stadium in what must have been a qualifying game for the 2014 World Cup which saw Wales play most of the game with ten men after James Collins was sent off.
There’s also been four draws between the teams in that time, so, although Wales will always be underdogs when they face the Belgians in the foreseeable future, you have to come to the conclusion after so much evidence in the last decade or so that these are two pretty evenly matched teams.
However, as mentioned earlier, you would never have thought that in the first half. Belgium beat Poland 6-1 at home in an earlier game in this group and it looked like they could be on their way to matching that or even improving on it.
Wales were chasing shadows as a Kevin DeBruyne inspired home side poured forward continuously, but through a mixture of luck, some poor Belgian misses and good last ditch defending, notably by Rhys Norrington-Davies who was being used in Ben Davies’ position in the back three, Wales got to the break only two down.
Belgium took the lead on eleven minutes as they moved fluently down their right to enable Michy Batshuayi to roll a pass into DeBruyne’s path which the Manchester City man side footed in from just outside the penalty area. It was a typically stylish finish by DeBruyne, but I think Wayne Hennessey might have been disappointed not to have turned the ball away or aside given that he got both hands to the ball.
DeBruyne also hit a post with one of a series of Belgian goal attempts, many of which were too close to Hennessey’s goal for comfort while Wales didn’t do themselves any favours with some careless passing and they were guilty of allowing the Belgians too much time and room on occasions.
On thirty seven minutes, it was 2-0 as Wales were opened up down their left again and DeBruyne had plenty of time to pick out the unmarked Batshuayi who tapped in from about four yards out on the far post.
After the break though, Wales were a different proposition as Brennan Johnson grew into the game with his confidence enhanced by his part in their forty ninth minute goal. Again, the goal came from the same area of the pitch as the first two did as Johnson got clear of a couple of defenders to flight a fine cross to the far post where Keiffer Moore headed in powerfully from eight yards.
There would be little chance of Wales being able to step up the pressure after their goal back though because for the next quarter of an hour or so, Belgium, without being as dangerous as they had been, simply kept the ball for what seemed like minutes on end.
Wales were able to come into it more in the last quarter of the game however when, as they always tend to do, Belgium showed that they aren’t as impressive going backwards as they are going forward.
It was Moore who went off to be replaced by Bale, but I’m sure the away side would have welcomed the tall striker still being on the pitch when a perfect far post cross flew across the face of. the home goal into an area where Moore would have been waiting to nod in his second.
Johnson also got himself into a good position when Connor Roberts headed down to him, but his first time effort from around the penalty spot flew disappointingly wide.
Neco Williams forced Thibaut Courtois into a diving save as Belgium’s serene progress to victory was interrupted, but the home side never lost the appetite to work hard to regain possession very quickly after it had been lost which they demonstrated from the first minute and so they were able to hold on for what no one in the Welsh camp could deny was a deserved win.
That victory margin could have been larger if VAR had not been there to show referee Ali Payabiyik how wrong he’d got his decision to award the home side a penalty after another sub Joe Morrell had performed a very good tackle on DeBruyne to clearly send the ball out for a corner.
But the referee, who I thought was poor throughout, took a long time reviewing the incident and I began to wonder if he was going to do a Michael Oliver and go against the advice he was getting from VAR. Instead, he finally accepted his error before, bafflingly, restarting the game with a goal kick – Bale also picked up a booking for protesting about the penalty award, so natural justice says that it should be rescinded, but I’m not sure that it can be now.
So, with Poland losing 2-0 at home to the Netherlands, Wales go into their final group game in Cardiff on Sunday knowing a win against the Poles will keep them in the Europa League group A rankings. This would be some achievement, but we’ve been competitive in every game we’ve played and the whole campaign has been an indicator of the progress Welsh football has made since they started playing Belgium so often.
Kevin DeBruyne said this week that he was bored of playing Wales, but he could well be facing us again in the next Nations League if we can win on Sunday – those world rankings say that we can do it and it really is a sign of the progress we’ve made that we are now ranked above teams like Poland who have been consistent qualifiers for the major tournaments for decades.
I should also mention that City’s women’s team triumphed on Sunday to the tune of 5-0 at Abergavenny with Danielle Green (2), Danielle Broadhurst, Siobhan Walsh and Rhianne Oakley scoring.
Finally, just to report that, despite hundreds, if not thousands, of column inches being devoted to the subject, there is no real news to report on City’s so called search for a replacement for Steve Morison. The words “so called” show my cynicism I’m afraid, because precedent tells me that the present incumbent Mark Hudson will get the job if he does moderately well in his caretaker role because, like Steve Morison a year ago, he has the advantage of being cheap.
No offence meant here to Hudson who was a fine player for us and seems a decent bloke. It’s also a bit unfair to say this when little is known really of his managerial/coaching abilities, but if it is Hudson who gets the job, then it has an underwhelming feel to it and, probably more seriously, it has the vibe of mistakes being repeated – what’s that saying about making the same wrong decision time after time and expecting a different outcome?
