Cardiff City mauve and yellow army.

It wasn’t enough to punish Wales as much as they were punishing Belarus for the sanctions that are in place against that country by sending them almost a thousand miles further than they would have had to go without those sanctions. Once the Welsh had travelled the 2,500 miles to the new venue, Kazan in Eastern Russia, they were faced by a pitch that was not fit for international football as evidenced by the huge divot that was formed when Gareth Bale fell and sustained what could have been a serious knee injury in the second half of today’s match.

To go with these setbacks, Wales were without thirteen players for reasons of injuries, Covid rules, suspension and Visa difficulties (what was that one all about?), so we had the likes of Chris Gunter making a rare competitive start and Brennan Johnson and City’s Rubin  Colwill making first competitive starts.

Wales started with Danny Ward in goal, a back four of Gunter, Chris Mepham, James Lawrence and Ben Davies, the Euros pair of Joe Allen and Joe Morrell in central midfield, Johnson, Bale and Dan James in front of them and Colwill as what I think was meant to be a false number nine, but he ended up being used as a target man to me.

That’s nowhere near what I would call a full strength Welsh team and so, when you consider all of things I listed in the first few paragraphs, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that they produced a disjointed and sketchy showing punctuated by expensive individual errors and a worrying lack of defensive conviction in a match that everyone was saying beforehand fell into the must win category.

Yet, somehow, I’m still not sure how, win they did to give themselves the chance of overhauling the Czech Republic to take the runners up spot which, realistically, is the best we can hope for I feel because the Belgians will surely be over the hill and far away if they beat the Czechs at home today.

Belgium showed that they are not infallible in the Euros and the Czechs were able to put Wales behind the eight ball early on in the group by drawing with the team ranked number one in the world in Prague, so the possibility exists that we can take at least a point off the Belgians again when they come to Cardiff. However, it remains a real long shot for me and we need to hope they do us a favour tonight and we can go to the away match against the team we scraped a 1-0 win over in March knowing that a draw should see us finish above them.

I’m making a big supposition there mind that we should be able to do what I’m pretty sure Belgium and the Czech Republic are very likely to do and that is take twelve points off the group minnows Belarus and Estonia.

Actually, describing Belarus as a minnow is a bit harsh because their ranking of ninety first in the world makes them that sort of team sides like Wales and the Czechs should beat, but, as we should have found today, they have it in them to spring a shock.

Nevertheless, I would expect us to beat them in Cardiff and we should have too much for an Estonia team ranked one hundred and ten in the world which has conceded fifteen goals in losing their three group matches so far.

Since the 2016 Euro qualifying campaign, Wales have made a habit of winning matches like today’s and the script is usually the same with strong defending to the fore as clean sheets were embroidered with, very often, a single goal margin of victory.

This was much, much different as Wales, led, then trailed for around a third of the game before winning it well into added time!

That they were able to do this was down to, arguably, Wales’ greatest ever player who ended his run of fifteen games without a goal for his country, by netting his second hat trick for them, with this one being much more important than the one he scored in the rout of China in what was essentially a friendly match three and a half years ago.

Bale, like too many of his team mates, was guilty of sloppy play at times, but we would have lost today without him. True, two of his goals were penalties, but the first one especially would have been a real test for him given Wales’ recent record from the spot and his awful miss against Turkey in the Euros and while his third, with the clock showing three of the scheduled four added minutes played, would probably not get into a compilation of his top fifty goals, it still took a fair bit of scoring.

The opening quarter of the game offered little hint of the drama to come as Wales had a grip on things due in no small measure to the early goal that should have made things a lot less tricky than they turned out to be. It came after a corner had been partially cleared to Ben Davies who then clipped a lovely, cute straight pass of the type that analysts say are so difficult to get right into the path of Bale, who got a touch to take him wide of advancing keeper Chernik who proceeded to knock over the Welsh captain for a clear penalty that saw Bale send him the wrong way.

Allen could have made it two, but his well struck effort from around the penalty spot was too close to Chernik, then the best Welsh move of the day saw quick passes exchanged down the right with Bale’s cross meant for Johnson scrambled behind for a corner.

Maybe it was all a bit too comfortable for Wales, but, around the twenty five minute mark. They began to start losing the challenges they had been winning, Belarus, who must be given credit as well for their improvement, were able to play through our press, while their own became more effective.

It felt like a momentum change, but there had been no real threat to the Welsh goal when Gunter chased back a long, high punt which he allowed to bounce a yard inside the penalty area. Doubts were expressed in the commentary box about the awarding of the penalty which followed on the grounds that if there was any contact made, it was slight, but by trying to deal with the high bouncing ball with his foot rather than his head, the experienced right back was, surely, making a rare international mistake.

Ward dived the right way for the penalty, but Lisakovich, the player fouled, placed his shot perfectly and the keeper never had a chance of making a save.

Lisakovich became the most influential player on the pitch for the rest of the first half as the Welsh defence endured as poor a fifteen minutes as I can remember in a long time.

Within ninety seconds, Belarus were in front. Colwill has to accept a share of the blame for losing the ball on the halfway line, but he had a right to expect far better from those in red behind him than he got.

Lawrence in particular was culpable as he got himself in a terrible position to deal with Lisakovich  and in no time the speedy forward was beyond his marker and in on goal with Mepham drawn across to try and deal with him. This left Sedona completely unmarked and he beat Ward easily from ten yards when the inevitable pass came.

Lawrence really was struggling at this point, but there were others as well – after the game, Rob Page said they had discussed the Belarus counter attack thread, but the way they chose to deal with it suggested the conversation was along the lines of “this lot are so slow that you don’t have to worry at all about them counter attacking”.

In truth Belarus should have had four by half time -Sachivko headed a corner wide from the edge of the six yard box when it looked easier to score (although maybe Lawrence did just enough to put him off). Then, after another rapid counter attack which left the Welsh defence gasping behind them, Belarus probably were looking to score the perfect goal as Klimovich curled his effort about a foot wide after taking too long to get his shot in.

Wales had offered nothing going forward themselves in this awful spell and although they improved in the second half as Belarus opted to sit back on their lead, a Johnson shot tipped over by Chernik apart, there was no sign of a Welsh equaliser when Page decided changes were needed.

Predictably, it was the youngsters Colwill and Johnson who made way and the City man has come in for some messageboard criticism for his showing.

I think this is harsh on two fronts, first Colwill did pretty well when Wales were on top and he can’t be blamed solely for the fade out which followed – there were far more experienced Welshmen who were struggling badly at this time.

More importantly though, we’re talking here about a teenager who, as far as I’m aware, until 2021 had played all of his Cardiff career as someone who would almost always have team mates in front of him when he received the ball and this enabled him to play to his creative strengths. Since coming into senior football for club and country he’s spent much of his time playing with his back to goal as a target for his colleagues. It’s asking an awful lot for any player to learn a new way of playing the game while stepping up a class or two – clearly Messrs McCarthy and Page have forgotten far more about football than I’ll ever know, but it seems to me that many of Colwill’s strengths are nullified when he’s asked to play as a target man.

How well or badly the youngsters did is up for debate, but I don’t think the view that Wales improved with the introduction of Jonny Williams and Mark Harris is.

By rights, Williams should be nowhere near the Wales team now. He plays in the Fourth Division now and finds club football a much tougher challenge now following his time at City which was something of a non event. However, here he was the Williams Wales have seen so often as he caused more problems for Belarus in those areas that are now called between the lines than any Welshman had done beforehand.

If anything though, Harris, on his Wales senior debut, was more impressive as his combination of clever and elusive movement and surprising strength and speed helped make Wales more of a problem for the Belarussians than they’d been for a good forty minutes or so.

Wales had to rely on more Belarus indiscipline for the equaliser midway through the second half though as Davies was bowled over by Ebong for a needless penalty as he contested a header a good fifteen yards from goal.

Bale stuttered in his run up this time, something that had me thinking he was going to miss, but,, again he found the net to get his team an equaliser they didn’t really deserve.

Knowing a draw was no good to them, Wales strove for the lead, but, in doing so, left themselves open to the counter attack, so there were some nerve shredding moments as they just about managed to keep Belarus in check.

Up the other end, Harris worked the room to put over a great cross that saw Bale go down in much the same manner as Davies had done about ten minutes earlier. It looked a good shout for a third penalty, but there was never much chance that it would be given – the odds on any team getting three penalties in a match must be tens of thousands to one.

With two minutes left, Bale lined up a free kick which was about as far out as his goal in Andorra seven years ago in a similar type game was, but, this time, his shot flew just wide as the goalkeeper collided with a post in his anxiety that it might be going in.

That seemed to be Wales’ last chance, it was to be a draw then, but, all of a sudden, defeat looked on the cards as Lisakovich beat the Welsh centrebacks in one final counter attack that saw Ward, who’d been something of a second half spectator, foil him with a fine save at the expense of a corner.

Attention turned to Lisakovich leaving the field to be substituted after what might have been a man of the match before one last shock to give the game a final score line that wasn’t really fair, but so vital to the visitors..

All of a sudden, Harris was free of his marker and moving in on goal, it looked like there was going to be a fairytale ending to his full Welsh debut, but Chernik saved and then, when the ball broke back to the City man, his follow up effort was deflected towards goal only for it to be cleared off the line by a defender.

From here, the ball broke to James, whose effectiveness had largely been blunted by a pitch on which the ball didn’t run well, and the new Leeds signing improvised a cross to Bale whose ten yard shot had just enough strength to beat Chernik and roll gently into the net for the goal which means Wales live to fight another day – especially as Belgium lead the Czechs 2-0 as I write this (it finished 3-0 and Wales can move above the Czechs with a game in hand if they beat Estonian on Wednesday)..

Just a few words about other Wales age groups, Cian Ashford played the first half of a very creditable 1-1 draw against their English counterparts at Under 18 level, while there were no Cardiff players in the Under 19 side beaten 3-1 by Austria in the friendly mini tournament they are competing in to leave them without a point from their two matches.

It’s the time of year again when I ask readers of Mauve and Yellow Army to make a contribution towards its running costs. Before I go into detail about this, I should, once again, offer my sincere thanks to all of you who have helped ensure the future of the blog over the past three years through a mixture of monthly payments via Patreon, monthly Standing Orders into my bank account and once a year payments via bank transfer, PayPal, cheque and cash.

The first time I made this request for assistance, it was prompted by a need for funds to pay for three yearly web hosting costs which, frankly, I was in no position to meet following my move of house a few months earlier. However, I’m pleased to say that, this time around, the web hosting bill was settled back in June with none of the problems there were back in 2018.

Therefore, any monies received this year will go towards other running costs and, although it’s too early yet to make any formal commitments despite so many of the pandemic restrictions in Wales being lifted recently, I am minded to do another review of a season from the past book to follow on from “Real Madrid and all that” which looked back on the 1970/71 campaign. At the moment 1975/76, the first promotion season I experienced, looks to be favourite for the book treatment, which would mean a lot more trips back and forth to Cardiff than my finances have become used to over the past year and a half – hopefully, the majority of them will not have to be made via Radyr Cheyne!

As always, the blog will still be free to read for anyone who chooses not to make a donation towards its running costs and, apart from the one in the top right hand corner which is to do with Google Ads, you will never have to bother about installing an ad blocker to read this site because there will never be any.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, donations can be made through Patreon, PayPal, by bank transfer, cheque, Standing Order/Direct Debit and cash, e-mail me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com for further payment details.