The manner of Wales’ elimination from the Women’s World Cup at the second Play Off stage may have been heartbreaking as Switzerland went 2-1 up just as extra time was reaching the thirty minute mark, but they could have no complaints about the outcome really.
This was like Wales’ match with Bosnia last Thursday in reverse. That night, the Bosnians were in the game for most of the first half, but it was all about defence for them after that as Wales had four goals disallowed for offside and generally peppered the visitor’s goal. Bosnia’s aim from about the hour mark onwards was to hang on for a penalty shoot out and they got to the second half of extra time before their dream was shattered.
Wales were cast in the Bosnia role tonight and, although there were not four disallowed goals this time, there was a lot of help along the way from VAR and, by the end, they were a well beaten side despite the closeness of the score line.
For forty minutes though, Wales were looking well capable of causing a shock- Rhiannon Roberts put them ahead with a composed finish to end a goalmouth scramble following a corner and they were generally comfortable, while also suggesting they could get a second which would then make any conversation about them qualifying tonight worthwhile.
However, as the half went into its last five minutes, it was as if that one hundred and twenty minutes on Thursday caught up with them. Switzerland, ranked twenty one in the world compared to Wales’ thirty, suddenly began to show why they had won in Italy and scored forty four goals in their qualification group.
It became a case of trying to hang on for half time, but Wales didn’t make it as a fluent move ended with the ball being cut back to Switzerland’s best player Ramona Bachmann who fired in the equaliser from fifteen yards.
Apart from a shot by Kayleigh Green that landed on the roof of the net, it was one way traffic in the second half with Wales surviving more by luck than judgement as the dreaded VAR exerted its baleful influence.
Rachel Rowe fell victim to the awful modern interpretation of the handball law – by the letter of the law, it was a penalty, but I think the law is an ass in this case, Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic of Barcelona took the penalty which came back off the post straight to her and she put the rebound in. Like tens of thousands of others watching on television I’m sure, I immediately said it was no goal because Crnogorcevic had touched the ball twice without anyone else making contact with it, but I began to wonder if I had missed something when the commentator started talking as if the goal was a valid one – not for the first, or last, time he was wrong and the penny eventually dropped for him about two minutes after the goal was disallowed – even then he seemed to think Wales had been saved by a technicality..
Four minutes from time Switzerland thought they’d won thanks to another fine Bachmann finish, but the goal was eventually disallowed for the sort of fractional offside that hardly fell into the “clear and obvious error” category which was originally the only thing that VAR could rule on..
Wales made it into extra time then and, to their great credit, managed to turn the tide a little despite the fact that many of their players were out on their feet by now and it was cruel that the Swiss were able to win it as late as they did with a clever near post flick by sub Fabienne Humm – Switzerland may have deserved the win, but you had to feel for the spirited Welsh team.
A few hours beforehand, City entertained the jacks at under 21 level at Leckwith this lunchtime in a breathless, tempestuous and goal packed derby which ended up 4-3 in their favour. That outcome came on top of 2-0 home wins over Swansea for our under 18 and women’s teams in recent weeks and will help to send the first team into the derby which really counts during the weekend after next, hopefully, feeling a bit more confident about the outcome..
However, while it’s going too far to expect this City fan to feel sorry for a Swansea team that we have just beaten, I think a neutral watcher would look at the ninety minutes (one hundred actually) and wonder how on earth the team in blue came out on top against the team in white which had to play three quarters of that time with ten men.
City, in particular James Crole, made a fast start even though the litany of Swansea chances had begun before his tenth minute opener when he received Cameron Antwi’s pass with Swansea defenders unsuccessfully appealing for offside, ran thirty yards with the ball and then shot beyond visiting keeper Remy Mitchell into the roof of the net. Around ten minutes later, City won possession in Swansea’s defensive third and Crole chased a Joel Colwill through ball only to be brought down by Mitchell, who was slow leaving his line for a ball he should have reached, for a clear penalty which Crole put away.
City had trouble defending corners all afternoon and when one was played back low to around the penalty spot, Xavier Benjamin blocked Brandon Cooper’s shot with his hand for a soft penalty four minutes later.Joel Cotterill’s spot kick went in via a post to halve the deficit, but, trying to get the ball off City’s Matthew Turner following the goal, Swansea centre forward Josh Thomas knocked the keeper to the floor with what may have been a push, but could equally have been a punch, and was shown a straight red card.
Thomas’ daft dismissal did not have the expected effect however as Swansea were completely on top for the rest of the first half and most of the second one.
Swansea’s Lincoln McFayden could, and probably should, have had a hat trick before half time with one of his misses being among the worst I’ve ever seen as Turner did well to turn his one on one shot on to the crossbar only for the ball to drop to McFayden who, with an unguarded net in front of him, somehow shot over from six yards.
The visitors were level when their giant centreback Wasiri Williams headed in a corner as he towered above his markers and, with City struggling to string two passes together in a display which never reached any great heights even when they were two up, they were relieved to get to half time all square.
Any hopes Darren Purse would be able to shake City out of their lethargy and ineptitude during his half time team talk came to nothing as, if anything, the second period shaped up to be even more one sided. Despite their one man advantage, City were wholly incapable of imposing any control on the game and, with their frequent poor first touches, sloppy passing and lack of dynamism, the under 21s were doing a very passable impersonation of several Cardiff City first teams of the last decade!
It would take far too long to go through all of the escapes the City goal had, but a Swansea goal was inevitable and it came from another Williams header from a corner, although Turner may feel that he could have done more to keep it out.
If one thing above any other contributed to the eventual outcome, I’d say it was the use of substitutes. Actually, that should read non use in Swansea’s case as, bafflingly, they made no substitutions, despite the fact that, to me at least, they clearly tired in the closing stages.
By contrast, City introduced Morgan Wigley, Tom Davies, Raheem Conte and Isaac Jefferies from around the hour mark onwards. All of them played a part in bringing about an improvement in City’s performance levels and it was Jefferies who scored a good equaliser with a shot across Mitchell as the game went into its final quarter following what was, perhaps, City’s best passing move of the game.
City still had to ride their luck though as a shot bounced back off an upright and I for one was happy to accept a barely deserved point as the game went into its final few minutes. There were three of them left when good work by Wigley helped set up Crole for what looked to be a decent hat trick chance. As had happened too often with City’s players though, the first touch was not what was hoped for, but, at least, Crole was able to lay the ball back to Jack Leahy, who took a couple of touches before curling a superb right foot shot past Mitchell from twenty five yards.
It was a goal fit to win any game and so it did eventually after an extended period of additional time which included an example of fine, last ditch defending by Benjamin.
Last week, City we’re able to overcome a good Reading side despite spending much of the second half defending. They didn’t really deserve to win that game either, but I rated it the best performance I’d seen from the under 21s this season. It’s still the best one I’ve seen from them. Despite the excitement today, this was not a good performance, it was a committed one which showed plenty of character, but they’ll lose more than they’ll win if they play like this every week.
