If asked to nominate Wales’ three most important players currently, I’d answer Ethan Ampadu, Harry Wilson and Ben Davies, but I dare say there’ll still be those who would put Aaron Ramsey in there, possibly at the expense of Davies.
So, in the eyes of some, Wales will have been without their three best players for today’s game with Kazakhstan and Tuesday’s visit to North Macedonia (who got their qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup off to a good start with a 3-0 win in Liechtenstein today). With that in mind, a 3-1 win at Cardiff City Stadium this evening was a satisfying enough way to begin Wales’ attempt to qualify for a second successive World Cup.
Wales under Craig Bellamy are certainly an interesting watch, tonight they played with a back three in which Neco Williams was not averse to pushing forward particularly in the second half in the manner that Connor Roberts on the opposite flank did all night. In front of centrebacks Joe Rodon and Davies was a single pivot in Josh Sheehan and then you had five players who were primarily attackers in Dan James, Sorba Thomas, Liam Cullen, David Brooks and Brennan Johnson.
I have been watching football for over sixty years now and have lived my life watching and wanting my teams to play to a system because it makes me feel comfortable as it’s what I’m familiar with. Now, I’m not saying that Wales did not have a system tonight, but don’t expect me to quantify it like I do with a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 5-3-2 etc!
To my way of looking at things, Sheehan had a huge workload, especially as two of what was shown as a back four in the pre match team announcements I saw spent much of the game in front of him. Therefore, I balked at the omission of Jordan James and would argue that we looked a better team when he came on for the last half an hour or so than we did without him.
In saying that, the first fifteen minutes or so of the second half when James wasn’t there was an improvement on what I thought was a careless first half showing.
Wales are all about pressing high up the pitch in numbers and in the second period, both before and after James’ introduction, you saw this in effective action thereby giving a clue as to how Bellamy can pick a team with so many forward players.
Kazachstan were only able to get the ball far enough up the pitch to threaten what could have been an exposed pair of centrebacks very occasionally – whether such a policy would work on better sides than Kazachstan is open to doubt, but, so far, Bellamy, now unbeaten in seven matches as Wales manager/coach, appears to realise that and adjusts his team’s approach accordingly.
Wales weren’t quite at the races in that first period, but Dan James was an exception to that rule, the Leeds winger was named as Championship player of the month for February and he, more than any other player in white, was instrumental in City’s recent 7-0 drubbing at Elland Road.
James’ display tonight was an exercise in showing how important confidence is in a player and it was really good to see him having such an influence on the Welsh side after what has been a difficult period for him, including, of course, the missed penalty against Poland that cost Wales a place at last year’s Euros.
It’s also amazing how you start getting lucky when you’re confident and playing well and James definitely got lucky eight minutes in as Wales made a sloppy start to the game. Wales tried to work a short corner routine involving Brooks and James, but it broke down, only for Cullen to regain possession as the ball found its way back to the former Swansea man whose shot would have been dealt with easily were it not for a deflection off a defender which wrong footed keeper Alexandr Zarutskiy.
That goal should have settled Wales and, to a degree, it did as they went on to dominate possession. However, there wasn’t much in the way of an end product to all of the ball they enjoyed as evidenced by only four first half goal attempts. That would have been five if Lithuanian referee Donatis Rumsas had given a penalty for a foul on James – for what it’s worth, I thought it was a foul and the only doubt was whether it took place inside or outside the penalty area, but Rumsas gave nothing and VAR saw no reason to ask him to take a second look at it.
The ref was very quick to point to the spot though when a cross struck Connor Roberts on the arm from close range. To me, these sort of incidents shouldn’t result in penalties, but rather like what I was saying about systems and formations, the game has changed a lot in the last few years and these days penalties are given for what to me is always going to be accidental handball.
Once again, VAR backed the ref’s decision and so Kazakhstan were given a way back into a game in which they were hardly being outplayed, but they had generally been second best.
Kazakhstan had not scored a single goal in their recent Nations League campaign and, after gaining wins over Denmark and Norway in Europe 24 qualifying, had dropped to 110th in the world rankings, so little wonder I suppose that Askhat Tagybergen’s penalty was a bit of a shocker as it was limply rolled right down the middle only for Karl Darlow to dive to his left. Nevertheless, the keeper’s attempt to save with his foot almost succeeded, but the ball just about made it over the goal line, even if it didn’t have enough on it to reach the back of the net! You won’t catch me saying a goalkeeper should have saved a penalty very often, but I can’t help thinking Darlow will be disappointed not to have kept this one out.
The possibility was there then for a very awkward night for Wales, but the half time break was clearly used to good effect as Thomas forced a corner straight from the restart and then produced a reminder of how good he can be from set pieces. In saying that, Thomas needed help from Zarutskiy as he came out for the cross and missed it leaving Davies to continue his recent flurry of goals for his country as he headed in from about three yards out.
Zarutskiy would go on to partially atone for his error with saves to deny Williams and the influential Jordan James and Wales should have had a penalty when Cullen was fouled, but despite Kazakhstan showing they’re a better team than their recent record indicates, the home side were generally comfortable holding on to what looked like being a 2-1 win until late on when Rabbi Matondo scored his first goal for his country as Thomas’ low cross following a superb cross field pass by Jordan James gave him the opportunity for his second assist of the night.
In age group games, Cian Ashford played the first half in a friendly game against Andorra for Wales under 21s who completely changed their team at half time – Wales won by 1-0.
The under 19s have been playing in what is a very tough Elite Group for qualification for their version of the Euros and after losing 2-0 to an England team featuring the likes of Tyler Dibling, Lewis Miley, Mikey Moore and Chris Rigg, they cannot qualify now after they were beaten 1-0 by Portugal today – Dylan Lawlor and Luey Giles started both matches and Cody Twose, Dakarai Mafico and Troy Perrett came on as subs today.
There was a good win for Wales under 18s over Poland in a friendly game with Mannie Barton netting the only goal of the game and, finally, the under 17s had a disappointing 0-0 draw with Azerbaijan in their qualifying group as part of the process to get their age group Euros and now they need to beat Albania, who were comfortable winners over the Azerbaijanis, to top the group.
In local football, there was a local derby in the Ardal South West League where Treherbert Boys and Girls Club were beaten 1-0 by Ynyshir Albions FC and Treorchy Boys and Girls Club were beaten 2-1 at home in Division One East of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance League by Fairwater FC who were my local team in this competition when I lived in Cardiff.
