For about ten minutes tonight, Wales may have felt that they could take their unbeaten run against world number ones Belgium to five games, but it wasn’t to be. For the first time in a match against us, Kevin DeBruyne showed why he is sometimes described as the best midfield player in the world as he came up with a lovely equaliser to a great Welsh goal and proceeded to be the dominant player on the pitch for the next seventy minutes or so as his team quickly added another goal and a second half penalty meant the 3-1 score line went in favour of the Belgians this time, rather than against them.
You won’t be getting a breakdown of the qualifying procedure for the 2022 World Cup from me because I’ve not got a clue as to what’s happening, but what I can say is that we will be going to Qatar next year if we win the qualifying group which, besides us and Belgium, contains the Czech Republic, Estonia and Belarus – the first two named met in the group’s other game tonight as the Czech’s confirmed that they are going to be the team most likely to beat us to second place, if anyone does, by winning 6-2 away from home against a side that already look like whipping boys.
Sadly, the situation with Aaron Ramsey has now reached the stage where we may as well look upon his presence in a Welsh team as a bonus. I believe his latest injury, which has caused him to pull out of the squad for this three match international break, means that he will have only played in three out of our last twenty three games. With David Brooks also ruled out, Wales really could have done without the news that Ben Davies had withdrawn as well and, if that wasn’t bad enough, Joe Allen’s first match back in the Welsh team following his cruciate knee ligament injury around a year ago lasted just eight minutes before he left the pitch with what looked like a pulled hamstring, so I would say it’s practically certain that he won’t be featuring again in this international week.
Rob Page, again deputising for the indisposed Ryan Giggs, made some brave selection calls with Danny Ward starting in goal rather than Wayne Hennessy and Harry Wilson providing the Cardiff City representation, with Keiffer Moore only getting a place on the bench. Other inclusions worthy of comment were James Lawrence and Chris Mepham at centre back and Ethan Ampadu in central midfield.
Ampadu was joined by Joe Morrell, who has played little first team football for Luton this season, as Allen’s replacement, but Wales reacted to the blow of losing their senior midfielder by taking the lead three minutes later with a memorable goal as a move that probably ran to double figures in terms of passes completed, ended with Wilson, Gareth Bale, twice and Conor Roberts exchanging first time passes to leave Wilson free to score his second goal in two internationals with a confident left footed finish past Courtois in the /Belgium goal.
The lead might have lasted a lot less time than it did if Romolu Lukaku had not fired over from four yards following a DeBruyne cross that was only inches away from a couple of his team mates before it reached the striker who has such a prolific scoring rate for his country in recent years.
That apart though, Wales were coping well until DeBruyne was not closed down quickly enough by Morrell and the Manchester City man fired home with a low shot from twenty five yards which was just out of Ward’s reach and went in off a post.
As expected, Belgium were dictating the game with an almost complete monopoly on possession and the home side turned the screw with a second goal just before the half hour mark as Thorgen Hazard headed in a Munier cross. Whether Hazard would have been able to score if Conor Robert’s hadn’t slipped on what was a poor surface is up for debate, but, for now, Belgium, who have a fearsome record both in terms of results and goals scored looked like they were on their way to maintaining their record of scoring an average of four goals a game in home competitive matches since their 2016 loss to us and maybe more on top of that.
Wales were glad to get in at half time at just 2-1 down having spent forty five minutes chasing the ball. For someone like Harry Wilson, it must have felt like life as normal, but a difference was that, this time, when he was in possession it was in positions where he could display his talents more and the passes he received were usually able to be brought under control pretty easily – hence, a case could definitely be made for saying he was our best player in the first period (he was withdrawn for Tyler Roberts midway through the second half).
If Wilson’s influence was not as great in the second half, his team were able to establish a foothold in the game with a brave showing in which they tried to take the game to the Belgians. There weren’t too many opportunities to come from the pressure they were able to exert on the home team’s goal, but Bale worked his way into what looked like a shooting position only to be crowded out inside the first couple of minutes and then couldn’t get proper contact on an attempted overhead kick after Dan James had knocked back a Roberts cross and the Manchester United winger twice had efforts which missed the target – the first one from the sort of position cutting in on to his right foot that he has scored quite often from for club and country in the past and the second, a snatched and slightly selfish effort from the right that flew yards wide after Courtois got into trouble from what was often a pretty effective Welsh press.
Apart from when their opponents almost worked Lukaku into a good shooting position, Wales were surviving quite comfortably in the second period until Belgium clicked into attacking action and a fluent move down the right ended with Ward making his first serious save of the night, but the keeper was unlucky as the ball went towards Mepham who, in a season where he has become more error prone and lost his place in the Bournemouth starting eleven as a result, was unaware of Dries Mertens appearing on his blind side and so his attempted clearance turned into a wild hack which earned the home team a clear penalty from one of only three fouls Wales committed in the whole game.
Lukaku had no problems with the penalty and the final few minutes saw the home team preserving their energy for the two other qualifying matches they face in this “break”. Wales, on the other hand tried, none too convincingly, to get back into the game with Moore (who I hope sees no action on Saturday in the pointless friendly with Mexico) on as an eighty fifth minute sub for Bale.
Wales were hardly disgraced as their eleven match unbeaten run in competitive matches ended. After all, they were facing the team ranked best in the world, who have averaged three goals a game during Roberto Martinez’s time in charge, with a side missing important, and in most cases, experienced players, none of whom will be back for the home match with the Czech’s on Tuesday. If we can win that one, then there was no real harm done tonight as far as our realistic finishing position in the group is concerned.
