Wales have been at a higher level than their norm for just about a decade now. It was June 2015 when Gareth Bale’s goal beat Belgium at Cardiff City Stadium and I’d say that was the night when the country began to expect qualification for a major tournament.
Since then, we’ve moved up a level. A place in the World’s top thirty has become the norm and there have been some great occasions to match anything in our history.
However, whereas lesser Welsh sides would bang in a hatful against the likes of San Marino every now and again, this better side tend to be efficient, rather than spectacular, when taking on the minnows of the game.
This time last year, we drew 0-0 with Gibraltar in a match which, more than any other, did for then manager, Robert Page. That embarrassment was an exception though – we get the job done against the lesser lights, but the modern Wales would normally win a match like Gibraltar one or two nil, not the five or six that their predecessors sometimes used to come up with.
Quite why we don’t bang in the number of goals we might expect against the likes of Gibraltar and tonight’s opponents, Lietchtenstein, is hard to answer. I think defences at international level are better organized than they were, but the modern Wales very rarely thrash anyone – the biggest win I can remember in the last decade is 6-0 over a China side that, from memory, had quite a high ranking at the time.
It wasn’t as if Wales played poorly tonight in beating Lietchtenstein 3-0 at Cardiff City Stadium. The visitors defended better than you’d expect a team ranked outside that toptwo hundred to do, especially in the first half, and their goalkeeper Benjamin Buchel had a fine game, but, further forward, the stats told a completely one sided story. Wales had twenty six goal attempts (eleven of them on target) to nil, but, for me, the more telling stat was the number of touches for both teams in the opposition’s penalty area – fifty four to nil!
Lietchtenstein defended deep and in numbers with the pattern set early on as Sorba Thomas established a domination over his marker out on the Welsh left by the o;d fashioned, but entirely welcome for me, method of knocking the ball past his opponent and beating him for. pace on the outside. Thomas was almost one hundred per cent successful in that approach as he constantly got to the bye line to pull back crosses, but, unfortunately and unusually, his crosses were not that accurate.
Thomas seeing so much of the ball meant that Neco Williams was not seen that much in attacking positions early on and then the full back, who I’d say has been Wales’ best player this season, suffered what looked like a serious ankle injury which will surely rule him out of contention for Monday’s visit to Belgium.
Coventry’s Jay De Silva replaced Williams and he also was prepared to let Thomas do his thing as the attacks, good saves and close misses mounted up. Despite this, it was beginning to look like Lietchtenstein were going to reach the haven of half time with the game still goalless, but a goal from an unusual source gave Wales the lead on thirty nine minutes.
If Thomas’s crossing from open play was a little short of his best, his crossing from corners was good and when he swung one into the far post, Joe Rodon netted with a powerful header to score his first international goal on his fiftieth start for his country.
The second half continued in the same vein and a burst of two goals in three minutes half way through it completing a win which could and probably should have been bigger than 3-0.
De Silva made his most effective contribution with a good cross to the far post that was perfect for Harry Wilson to attack as he headed home from six yards and, another sub, David Brooks, played a part in the build up to the third goal when the influential Josh Cullen’s cross gave him the opportunity to volley towards goal, only for Buchel to make another save which fell into the path of Kieffer Moore who was left with a simple chance from eight yards.
Wales got a little careless in the last quarter of the game, but what has to be seen as a good night for the team got better late on with news of a late equaliser for North Macedonia against group favourites Belgium which means they could only match our 1-1 draw against the Macedonians away from home.
There were six City players in the Welsh under 21 squad which faced Norway in a friendly game this afternoon with Cian Ashford, Dylan Lawlor and Joel Colwill starting what turned out to be a disappointing 4-0 loss.
As for the shambles that is Cardiff City, we do at least know that there is going to be a week’s warm weather training in Spain in early July which will include a game against opponents yet to be named – we also know that Cambridge United have confirmed they will be playing a behind closed doors game against us during their training week in south Wales.
The search for our new manager drags on and on and on though, but an end to the slog which has turned into a bore looks to be in sight as social media has been full of claims that Aaron Ramsey will get the job after Nathan Jones signed a five year contract at Charlton. It was thought originally that Ramsey’s appointment would be confirmed today, but it seems that the sorry affair will drag into another week.
