Craig Bellamy’s unbeaten record continues into a ninth match then thanks to a late, late equaliser by David Brooks five minutes after they had fallen behind as North Macedonia broke the deadlock on ninety one minutes.
It was a thoroughly deserved point for Wales as well. The home side paid us a lot of respect as they opted very much for a counter attacking approach with a flat back five. Therefore, it was not that much of a surprise to see Wales dominate possession and territory and, although there weren’t too many of them, the chances were there for them to get the elusive lead.
However, for maybe the first time since he took over, there was a suspicion that Craig Bellamy might have been outcoached by his rival Blagoja Milevski as he made attacking substitutions late on and, for the first time, it was us who were under the pressure – I was also going to add that Bellamy’s substitutions didn’t work, but I can’t really do that when the assist and goal both came from substitutes can I!
Nobody thought Wales would be unchanged from the win over Kazakhstan on Saturday and the changes saw Ben Davies switch to left back to replace Connor Roberts (Neco Williams moved to right back) and Chris Mepham came in at centreback. In midfield, Jordan James unsurprisingly started in place of Liam Cullen and David Brooks made way for Nathan Broadhead.
James, fresh from his impressive half an hour on Saturday forced the home goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski into a diving save in the first minute, but it was a misleading start as Wales played at a slower tempo than we’ve grown used to under Bellamy and took a calm control on proceedings.
The home crowd booed and whistled at long spells of Welsh possession, but will have been grateful that there wasn’t much in the way of an end product from the visitors, but they did come up with one bit of quality as the two James’, Dan and Jordan, combined neatly to get the latter to the byeline and his low cross flashed across the face of goal with Sorba Thomas unable to convert on the far post.
There was always going to be someone who would come into the team from out in the cold so to speak when Bellamy took over, but the fact that it was Sorba Thomas who filled that role probably came as a shock to many (it did to me). In the event , Bellamy has been proven right, Thomas is holding his place in the team on merit and he had another good game tonight, but, he’s not the best finisher and, although this miss was hardly in the sitter class, I couldn’t help thinking that some of the other members of the squad would have scored.
North Macedonia offered barely anything in terms of attacking play in a first half which could be described in one word – cagey.
Thankfully, the second half was a bit more lively before it’s crazy last few minutes, but, still, until their strong last few minutes, the home side only really threatened once when the sort of counter attack they’d planned for saw sub Darko Churlinov denied by the game’s best save from Karl Darlow.
Wales came close when Dan James’ cross went across goal and out when maybe a more natural centre forward than Brennan Johnson may have gambled on the ball being missed by a defender, as it duly was, thereby presenting him with a far post tap in. They came closest though when Thomas’ looping cross just about stayed in play, Dimitrievski made a mess of things and the ball bounced to Johnson ten yards out whose shot was cleared off the line by a defender.
Wales introduced Kieffer Moore, David Brooks, Rabbi Matondo and Joe Allen, but, in the short term at least, nothing came from them as North Macedonia seized the initiative for the first time in the game as a cross just eluded two of its targets. Wales didn’t learn their lesson though and a cheap free kick conceded by Allen was the signal for a series of free kicks and corners where Moore proved his worth by dealing with most of them on the near post.
However, as the latest Macedonian set piece was cleared it fell to Allen, who clearly didn’t see Bojan Miovski stood in an offside position because his back pass turned into a perfect through ball for the now onside Miovski who went on to just about beat Darlow to send the crowd wild.
Im certainly not going to criticise Allen too much for his awful blunder, he’s built up so much credit over a great career for his country for him to deserve that, but maybe it does bring into question the whole thing about his comeback after retiring a few years back.
Four additional minutes had been signalled and, with all of the celebrations following the goal, there was still enough time for Wales to rescue things, but that chance seemed to be gone when Jordan James’ shot was frantically blocked by the home defence.
However, there was still time for Williams to swing in a long ball from halfway that Moore headed into the path of James, who had again was foiled, only for the ball to find its way to Brooks who didn’t get the best contact on his shot, but it went through the legs of a defender and rolled, almost apologetically, into the net.
Of course, this was a good point for Wales under the circumstances, but does the failure to win hand the initiative to Belgium who have not yet kicked a ball in the group? I’m not sure it does because, despite still possessing a string of fine players, they have looked like a side in decline for some years now (even if they did come back impressively to beat Ukraine 4-3 on aggregate in their Nations League Play Off after losing the first leg 3-1).
In age group football, Cian Ashford’s goal earned the under 21s a good 1-1 draw with Sweden. The Under 19s had five City players in the starting line up as they rounded off their “group of death” with a 3-1 win over Turkey, the under 18s were beaten 4-2 by Denmark and Noah Williams captained Wales to a 2-1 win over Albania to win their three team group as part of the qualification process for the age group Euros.
Just a quick mention as well for City’s women’s team – they were trailing 2-0 at TNS on Sunday with eioghty eight minutes played and came back to win the game 3-2!
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