Realistically, beating the team that was playing in the World Cup Final only fifteen months ago was always going to be a very big ask for Wales in their latest Euro 20 qualifying game and I think it could definitely be argued that the way they approached their task tonight at Cardiff City Stadium suggested they would be happy with a draw against Croatia.
In the event, that’s exactly what they got as a cagey affair finished 1-1 with me feeling that, by the end, both sides would have been perfectly happy for the final whistle to be blown as soon as the game reached the ninety minute mark – certainly, neither team showed any great inclination to hunt for a winner in the eight minutes of added time.
That there was so much additional time played (there was also four minutes signalled in the first half, which in fact became almost six), gives the clue as to the nature of a very physical encounter. It should be said as well that all of the game’s long injury delays were caused by either knocks to Welsh players brought about by Croatian fouls or, in Luca Modric’s case, an injury to a visiting player as a result of a foul he committed.
Croatia have always been an example to all of the countries in the world with small populations. For a nation with just over 4 million inhabitants to have produced so many talented players with fine techniques over the past thirty years or so is an amazing achievement, but, just as with the old Yugoslavian side, which was the national team for Croats under Communist rule, there is a physical and cynical edge to go alongside all of that ability.
Tonight, Croatia had five players booked – two of them, Domagoj Vida and Bruno Petkovic for reckless aerial challenges on Dan James and Ethan Ampadu respectively with Petkcovic especially lucky to only see yellow after a foul early in the second half which led to the Leipzig loanee having to be replaced by Joe Morrell.
Having started the game looking like they were going to blow Wales away, Croatia spent the last eighty minutes or so of the match playing like a side that were not that interested in going for the win. In a way, that was understandable given the strong position they’ve got themselves in at the top of the group, but also I’d like to think that it was something of a testimony as to Wales’ attacking pace that they showed little inclination to commit men forward.
With Wales also reluctant to force the issue, it led to a match which, unlike the one in Slovakia on Thursday, was very short of goalmouth thrills and spills – that the game stayed watchable to the end was entirely down to what was at stake.
It was no surprise at all to learn a few hours before kick off that Aaron Ramsey would not be playing, so, very unusually under this manager, Wales started with an unchanged team against opponents who were good enough to leave Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic and Milan’s Ante Rebic on the bench.
The match started with what felt about two minutes of Croatian possession without a single touch of the ball by a Welsh player and the home side were soon struggling to contain the fluent visitors. In fact, the first time Wales worked themselves into a vaguely promising situation, it resulted in Wayne Hennessey having to pick the ball out of the net a few seconds later.
The goal came about when a pass intended for Jonny Williams was misplaced and Croatia worked the ball out left to a new name to me, Josip Brekalo, who contributed a very good first half and a pretty ordinary second period, and he turned Tom Lockyer inside out before knocking over a pass which found it’s way to former Everton man Nikola Vlasic whose shot from just outside the penalty area beat Hennessey and rolled almost apologetically into the net via an upright.
A goal down after just nine minutes, it could have got worse for Wales a few minutes later when they had real cause to be grateful to Hennessey as he flung himself to his left to pull off a fine save from Perisic’s header as Ben Davies got caught under a long ball forward from Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren.
Apart from a well crafted effort by Tin Jedvaj which flew narrowly wide and over in the game’s closing stages, that was the sum total of the visitor’s attacking efforts.
While Wales deserved credit for keeping Croatia quiet for so long, it was also a reflection of their determination to maintain their defensive shape and not present the Croats with a second. Rather like in Slovakia, Lockyer had an early dodgy moment and then settled down in an unfussy and calm manner to form an effective centreback combination alongside Joe Rodon that augured well for the battles to come before qualification is decided if Chris Mepham is still sidelined by injury.
Full backs Connor Roberts and Ben Davies were also efficient defensively, but, unusually, it was the latter who shone more when it came to the attacking side of the game (more on that later), while the Allen and Ampadu/Morrell combination were more dogged than eye catching as they concentrated more on the defensive side of things. Even attacking wide men Gareth Bale and James were asked to do their share of back tracking’ leaving the again impressive Keifer Moore as the sole out and out attacker.
Returning to Ben Davies, he was winning his fiftieth cap tonight after a slow start to his season caused by the hernia operation he had in the summer. Davies had never scored for his country, but, given the low chances of that ever happening, he did the next best thing on the occasion of his half century of internationals by creating an equaliser out of nothing.
In truth, the game had become something of a stalemate in the minutes before that with Croatia continuing with the passive approach which they adapted when their expansive play of the first few minutes ran out of steam. However, Davies changed that by winning the ball decisively, driving forward and then regaining possession with the aid of what the Croations were adamant was a foul before playing a lovely pass to Gareth Bale who took three touches which were all equally as good as each other in their own ways – the first two were all about taking him clear of the last defender and the third was a calm, low left footed finish from about eight yards out which gave keeper Livakovic no chance of saving.
There was a brief period of home pressure just after James returned to the pitch after his bump on the head, but that and the goal was about it as far as a goal threat went with Wales in the first period.
The second half didn’t offer much either – James fired in a shot from an angle that Livakovic beat out and dived on just before Moore could pounce, there was a shout for a penalty when Bale went down under an innocuous looking challenge, as the captain, looking back to his captivating best at times in his ability to go by people at pace, and his team ended up with a draw which was, it seemed to me, a satisfactory outcome as far as they were concerned.
Apart from that, it was a case of almosts really for Wales especially when Moore was fouled on the edge of the area and nothing was given by Dutch ref Björn Kuipers who I thought lacked consistency and failed to come down hard enough on some of the visiting fouls – to balance that, our goal would probably have been disallowed by many refs.
What this result means to the qualifying situation is that Hungary moved four points ahead of us with a 1-0 home win over Azerbaijan. They now have twelve points which is two more than Slovakia and four above Wales. However, their only remaining match is the one where they face us in the final game of the group which will almost certainly have a huge amount riding on it and the impression the Hungarians have given in the autumn fixtures is that the momentum they built up last year and in the early months of 2019 has stalled somewhat.
Even if we were only to draw with Azerbaijan in our penultimate match, a win for us by a two goal margin or more against Hungary would be enough to move us above them in the final table. However, if Slovakia were then able to beat Azerbaijan in their last match, they would go to thirteen points and a failure to take the three points for Croatia when they entertain the Slovaks would mean that we could not overhaul them.
What the draw tonight did was make sure we have to win our last two matches – nothing else will be good enough for us, but, the dropped two points for Croatia does mean is that they still need at least a draw to ensure qualification and this means their final game against Slovakia will be a competitive one with both sides needing to take something out of it.
The bad news for Wales is that both Croatian centrebacks are suspended for that Slovakia match, while we’ll be without Joe Allen in Azerbaijan for the same reason. This means that it is even more vital that there is an appearance of the lesser spotted Aaron Ramsey in Baku and I would argue that there would be a case for bringing someone like Andy King, currently not getting a game for Rangers where he is on loan, back – even the currently without a club Joe Ledley could get a recall!
Meanwhile, there was a feeling of so near yet so far for the Welsh Under 17 side over the weekend as they let a 1-0 half time lead over the Netherlands turn into a 2-1 defeat in the second half. What Wales need to do to qualify from their group now is beat Kosovo on Tuesday and then hope the Netherlands draw against a Slovenian team that Wales beat in their first game – with the Slovenians having beaten a Kosovo side which drew with the Dutch, such an outcome is by no means an impossibility.
