To think I was saying that, given their lack of match fitness, I’d consider leaving one or both of Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey out of tonight’s World Cup qualifying Semi Final against Austria! In my defence, I did say that I’d think of leaving them out and then pick them both, but we are talking about two players who barely play for their clubs (Bale has played less than ninety minutes for Real Madrid since the last international break and Ramsey’s loan move to Rangers has seen start just three times, only once in the league, in almost two months).
Yet, how can you contemplate Wales without the pair of them! On another huge night at Cardiff, it was Ramsey who came to the party with both of the goals that took us into the Euro Finals for the second time with a 2-0 win over Hungary and the same man was excellent in what was Wales’ best performance in that tournament when his goal put them on the way to the win over Turkey – Ramsey also was a goalscorer in the 2-2 draw in the Czech Republic which was vital in gaining us the second placed qualifying group finish behind Belgium.
Bale, by contrast, had been quietish during these matches and had only his hat trick in Belarus to offer as proof that the flame was still burning brightly, as opposed to flickering. However, with his country almost desperate in their desire to reach a World Cup Finals tournament, he came good in what was probably our biggest game in the competition in sixty four years – Bale’s brilliance tonight was instrumental in ensuring that we will eventually have any even bigger match in a few months’s time when, hopefully, the postponed Scotland v Ukraine Semi Final will be played.
Although I’m knocking on a bit now, I’m a little too young to have seen Billy Meredith play and John Charles was well past his best when I saw him play for City – Charles was my father’s favourite player, as well as being the best he’d seen in his opinion, but if those two were better than Bale, they must have been absolutely superb players and right up there with the best in the world during their time.
Bale is the best Welsh player I’ve seen and his legend grew tonight with two fantastic goals as we edged through by 2-1 in what was a higher quality encounter then you would realistically expect a match with so much riding on it to be.
What turned out to be the decisive goal in the fifty first minute was a thing of beauty as Bale found an angle with his left footed shot across keeper Heinz Lindner that was beyond the ability of seasoned and capable pros, let alone mere mortals. Bale’s chance came courtesy of a Ben Davies touch after Dan James and Harry Wilson had worked a short corner routine and, for a while, it looked like Wales’ progress to the Final would be a comfortable one.
However, Davies’ deflection of a Marcel Sabitzer shot into his own net midway through the second half ensured the tense finish that everyone knew was inevitable in reality. Although, looking back now, Wales defended resolutely in the closing minutes when the pressure came on and Austria didn’t really fashion anything that would cause too much trauma for the Welsh team and its passionate support. In fact, James probably had the two best chances while it was 2-1 as Lindner denied him with the first and a poor touch cost him the second one..
It needs to be said though that a great night may have turned out a lot different if Christophe Baumgartner had scored from a clear fifth minute chance rather than hit the crossbar – a challenge by Neco Williams could well have proved decisive in preventing the goal.
Baumgartner should have scored though as Austria sliced open our defence in what I thought was an ominously composed start, but Wales were soon showing that their pace and intensity could ruffle that composure as evidenced by James’ even earlier shot which came from an effective Welsh high press.
Austria shaded the first twenty minutes though in my book, only for Wales then to up things as their increasing pressure saw Wilson fouled just outside the penalty area to the right of the goal.
It was an ideal position for a left footer to try their luck and that would mean a shot by the ex City loanee in most circumstances, but in this team, Bale gets to pull rank despite the fact that his last international goal from one had come against England in the 2016 Euros.
What followed though was incredible. Rob Page said after the game that It was the best free kick he’d ever seen – I’m glad he said that because I’d been telling myself the same thing for the previous hour and more!
It really was a thing of beauty and precision – play would have needed to be suspended for minutes for a mathematician or physicist to calculate the angles and heights required to put the ball where no Austrian stood an earthly of preventing it hitting the back of the net, but Bale just plonked the ball down and came up with the correct calculations in seconds!
I say that, but on my first viewing, I wondered whether Lindner was at fault because he did just appear to wave at the ball as it went in. Having now seen it a few more times though, I was doing the keeper a disservice – he had absolutely no chance and, he must have known it as the ball curled towards him.
There’s a photo I’ve seen of all four members of the Austrian wall about eighteen inches to two feet off the ground as they despairingly watch the ball pass a matter of inches above them before it just kisses the underside of the bar to drop into the corner of the net – a moment of pure genius!
Perhaps the difference between the teams was down to more than just one man though because Wales had a pace and desire on the break which the Austrians couldn’t match. I’ve heard it said that attacking dead balls can offer an advantage for the defending team at the really top levels of the game and always wondered about the logic in that, but tonight there were examples as to why it may be true.
This was never more so than when Wilson and James worked a chance for Ramsey following a lung bursting run by the former City man that demonstrated that, for all of his injury concerns, his general fitness is still good enough to make those runs beyond forwards that have been such a feature of his career.
Once again, first impressions were shown to be wrong as what I thought was a bit of a slice by someone out on their feet after running the length of the pitch to join the attack was in fact a well struck effort from twenty yards that drew a fine save out of the keeper on his near post – the way Lindner celebrated his save told you all you needed to know about what he thought of it.
At the end of it all, I’m finding myself wondering how Wales will cope without the two men I was saying may be left out, but, actually, there’s a third player who needs to be added to that question.
Just over a week ago, Joe Allen gave a six out of ten performance for a Stoke side beaten more convincingly than the 2-1 score line suggested at Cardiff City Stadium, but, with Ethan Ampadu selected as part of a back three and his midfield colleagues being the more attack minded Ramsey and Wilson, Allen was given a huge responsibility and workload as the sole “sitter” in the middle of the park. In response, Allen’s country got a performance at the level which saw him selected in the 2016 team of the tournament- it was eight or nine out of ten stuff which made him look irreplaceable.
Elsewhere, European Champions Italy bowed out on their own turf, sensationally beaten by a single goal from North Macedonia in added time at the end of the game. Next up it’s a journey to Portugal for the North Macedonians, but who’s to say that they can’t pull off another shock against a side that can be curiously fallible at times?
On the face of it, a 3-1 home win over Turkey looks fairly routine for the Portugese, but they did allow the Turks back into the game after being 2-0 up at half time and, but for a missed penalty, it would have been 2-2 going into the closing stages.
The Czech Republic side that had looked so impressive in losing 1-0 in Cardiff early in the qualification process were again undone by a single goal, this one coming in extra time from their hosts Sweden and so they’ll be the side Wales will face in Cardiff on Tuesday in a friendly game while Finals are being played elsewhere.
