Well, well, well who would have believed it! Right from the moment Turkey escaped with a fortunate point in their first game at Cardiff City Stadium, it had seemed liked their Nations League group, also featuring Iceland and Montenegro, was theirs to lose.
The Turks had moved to the top of the group after their second game and stayed there throughout with the feeling being that the job of winning the group was virtually sewn up on Saturday when Wales were denied the win they needed to overhaul them as the sides played out their second goalless draw.
That said, very little was known for sure going into tonight’s last round of games. Yes, Iceland were not going to win the group, but they could claim second position and a promotion Play Off with a win in Cardiff tonight, while Montenegro knew their fate already – five losses from five games meant they were assured of finishing bottom and were definitely going to be relegated into the Europa League’s third tier.
A Welsh win and a Turkish draw in Montenegro tonight would have resulted in a case of slide rules and logarithms being brought into use as the two teams would have finished level on points and who knows what weird and wonderful formula the authorities would have come up with to separate them. Of course, a Welsh win and a Turkey loss to group whipping boys Montenegro would have won the group for us, but that was never going to happen was it.
However, that was to reckon without Nikola Krstovic the Montenegro forward who had six goals in his twenty four caps so far, but he has now increased that goal tally by fifty per cent following his hat trick which helped his country pick up their first points of the campaign as they saw off the Turks by 3-1!
So, Wales had the chance to secure another campaign in the top section of the Europa League with matches against some of the best sides in the continent to look forward to. Not only that, there would be benefits like a probable Play Off place for a major tournament and an improved seeding for the upcoming World Cup qualifying draw.
In the event, Wales got the job done by seeing off a wasteful Iceland by 4-1. By the end, the visitors looked a well beaten side, but for three quarters of the game, they had seemed the better side to me and had the chances to have put themselves beyond a Wales side that looked unsteady defensively throughout. I thought Joe Rodon played pretty well, but, after such a good defensive showing on Saturday, this was a complete contrast with all of the other defenders having their awkward moments.
Further up the pitch, Wales were ruthless with ten of their eleven goal attempts being on target according to the BBC’s stats. Looking at the scoreline, you would have thought that Harry Wilson, who has become the closest thing we’ll get to a Gareth Bale replacement, would be the man to fire such a scoring spree, but despite scoring the best goal of the night, it was a relatively quiet showing by the Fulham man.
No, it was the unheralded Liam Cullen who captured the headlines with a couple of assists to go with his first two goals in a Wales shirt. Cardiff fans tend to focus on Cullen when.they debate how Rubin Colwill gets into the team and I sympathise to a degree because Cullen is not an eye catching player like Rubin is when he’s on form. However, I have to ask would Colwill have scored either of the goals Cullen did tonight and while he could have played the pass to set up the third goal quite easily, I don’t see him battling to win the ball off a centreback as effectively as Cullen did for the last goal either.
So, I’m going to give Cullen credit for a night in which he really laid down his international credentials. I’m still not convinced he’ll end up being anything more than another one of four or five attacking midfielder types that we have who’ll all do a broadly similar job for their country, but, after tonight, maybe that’s an unfair conclusion to come to – he was very influential tonight as he combined his attacking feats with the midfield responsibilities he was given as he took over from Jordan James in the starting line up.
Wales made four changes with Danny Ward and Karl Darlow continuing their alternate games ploy, Ben Cabango came in for Connor Roberts as Ben Davies switched to left back and Neco Williams moved across to the right, while Dan James replaced Sorba Thomas.
Therefore, four out of the five at the back changed either in personnel or position from Saturday and it showed early on. Iceland had already forced Ward into a decent save before they took the lead on seven minutes as the keeper did really well to save a Orri Oskarsson header, but Andri Gudjohnsen was well placed to turn the ball in from eight yards.
With Cabango especially looking uneasy and even the reliable Davies making the odd error, Wales were a little lucky to come through the first quarter of the game just one down. There were signs though that the Iceland defence could be as creaky as the Welsh one looked if put under pressure and just past the half an hour mark, Williams and Brennan Johnson combined well down the right, before the latter knocked over a tempting cross which Cullen, making a clever run into the box glanced past the keeper to equalise.
It was either a very good finish by someone showing a good striker’s instinct or lucky as it was more a shoulderer than a header and, despite seeing quite a few replays of the goal, I’m still not quite sure which one it was.
That was the one goal that was all of Wales’ own making in terms of putting together a move of their own. The other three came from the source which modern tactical play puts so much emphasis on – the turnover of possession.
For the second goal in time added on at the end of the first half, it was Mark Harris who won the ball to help set up a great chance for James. Iceland goalkeeper Hakon Valdimarsson’s save would have pushed the ball wide, but Cullen again showed good instincts to follow up and was left with a simple finish from close range.
With Wales ahead by 2-1 at the break while Turkey trailed by the same score, the chance of the Welsh topping the group was very much alive, but, in the opening stages of the second period, you couldn’t help thinking that even if Montenegro were able to hold on to their lead, our defensive problems would provide Iceland with the means to at least equalise.
An example of how lax the Welsh defending was for much of the time came when an Icelandic player got himself into so much space from a corner that he was able to have a second swing at the ball after he had missed with his first one. Thankfully, whereas you could say Wales were clinical in their attacking play, the same didn’t apply to their opponents who tended to be off target with their shooting.
Craig Bellamy’s concern at how the game was going was illustrated by his first substitution which saw Joe Allen come on for Harris around the hour mark and the veteran made an almost immediate impact as he and Cullen were able to effect one of those all important turnovers and the latter was able to send Johnson clear to score easily.
It was around now that news of another goal in the Turkey game filtered through as Krstovic completed his hat trick and, all of a sudden, Wales became favourites to win the group. You kept on waiting for the news that the Turkish fightback had begun, but it never came and the celebratory mood was only intensified when Cullen battled to win a long clearance by Ward which shouldn’t really have been his and Wilson made scoring from twenty yards look ridiculously easy with an unerring shot into the top corner.
Bellamy makes it six unbeaten then and while winning a Nation’s League group is hardly eye catching stuff in the grand scheme of things, it’s certainly nothing to be sniffed at and another offshoot of this triumph might well be that Wales will start their qualifying fixtures for the 2026 World Cup off in March when so many others will be having promotion or relegation Play Off games.
There was also good news for Wales’ under 19s who qualified in second place for the Elite Round for the Euros after beating Liechtenstein 5-0 – Kai Lawrence of Coventry scored two first half goals to put them well on the way to qualification and Manchester United’s former Cardiff striker Gabriele Biancheri then scored a hat trick after the break. Ronan Kpakio, Luey Giles and Dylan Lawlor all started the game, but I’m not sure if Cody Twose, Trey George or Dakari Mafico got their chance off the bench.
