CYMRU 1-0 LATVIA: THE BIGGEST TALKING POINTS

Photo by Lewis Mitchell [lewismitchellphoto.photoshelter.com]

Lewis Sharpe

It wasn’t always pretty, but Cymru began their Euro 2024 qualifiers with four points from their first two games. 

If you’d have offered fans, and I presume most members of the backroom staff and players, they’d have bitten your hand off for that before a ball was kicked.

I didn’t realise until I was told tonight, but Cymru were without a win in nine games. And although we played well in spells, it wouldn’t have been a Cymru performance if we’d have won comfortably. 

Here are my main talking points from the match:

1. Positive start, not so positive 10-15 mins

Cymru started on the front foot early on. The front-three were working well together. Harry Wilson was picking up the ball in the pocket, Kieffer was bringing the rest into the game and Dan James was stretching the Latvian defence (although they didn’t leave much space to work with). 

And that’s how we had our first chance. James beat the right-back and pulled it back to Wilson who forced a great save out of the goalkeeper. 

Between the 10th and 15th minute, Latvia grew into the game, and made us all worried when Danny Ward had to save us from a header. 

You could see Latvia were holding their shape, and Cymru have never been the best at breaking down a low block. It forces us to take shots from range which, although a few came close, suited the visitors more than the hosts. The type of game we would’ve been bailed (Bale’d?) out of in previous years.

It felt like it could’ve been one of those days until we were saved a few minutes before the interval…

2. Great international window for Kieffer

That brings me onto my next point. Moore, even without his goal, has been really good over the two games. He switched from the long out-ball option in Split to a more technical, ball-playing striker in Cardiff. 

And his goal. It was so Kieffer Moore. His 10th goal for Cymru. All of which seem to be carbon copies of each other. But so effective. 

3. Loads of nearlys 

We NEARLY scored about five. Wilson, Neco, Ampadu all nearly scoring from outside the box. I thought, especially after we scored, we attacked quite well in phases. I remember one chance that would’ve been one of the nicest goals we’d have scored for a long time – James played a reverse chip over the defence and Wilson nearly volleyed into the back of the net. 

Talking about nearlys, we were under the cosh for a while around the hour mark. A few half-chances that could’ve fallen in Latvia’s favour. It nearly wasn’t our day. 

4. Joe Morrell appreciation society

Joe Morrell has quickly become a key figure in this side. Although not perhaps at Joe Allen’s level, Morrell didn’t put a foot wrong in our two games during the international window. Even against Croatia’s midfield – one of the best in the world – we didn’t get massively overrun. 

It’s nuts to think that a League One footballer turns up for international duty and always performs. He’s now on 34 caps, too. 

5. New beginnings

I presume the nature of the game, alongside the one-goal margin, prevented Rob Page from blooding through more youngsters. We saw Swansea’s Ollie Cooper for the first time and a second cap for new fan-favourite Nathan Broadhead.

We still have a lot of young talent ready to be introduced, and I’m sure we’ll see them soon. 

The future’s bright. What a time to be a Cymru fan.