WALES ARE AT A WORLD CUP, BUT DON’T CALL IT A MIRACLE
Photo by Andrew Dowling [andrewdowlingphotography.co.uk]
Megan Feringa
Robert Page does not believe in miracles. Or, more accurately, the Wales manager does not believe that his side’s 1-0 World Cup qualifying playoff final victory over Ukraine relied on one, or any variation of one.
Wales might have spent most of those 95 gruelling minutes seemingly touched by a golden light — goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey reaching into the heavens for any one of his nine saves from Ukraine’s 22 efforts at goal; Daniel James avoiding a second yellow card for pushing referee Antonio Lahoz that slightest bit over the edge; Ben Davies routinely sliding into ludicrously dangerous last-ditch tackles in the box; Kieffer Moore not accruing a single yellow card; Wales avoiding what, on another day, might have passed as a stone-wall penalty to Ukraine.
And Andriy Yarlomenko’s head getting perfectly in the way of Gareth Bale’s free-kick in the 33rd minute – a free-kick that, had it not been for Yarlomenko’s unfortunately timed diving effort to divert it, would have been comfortably scooped up by Ukraine’s Georgiy Bushchan in goal.
Those individual triumphs, and more, in Sunday evening’s gritty and tense affair might have suggested to some that making it to a World Cup was Wales’ irrevocable destiny, something written in the stars, maybe because the footballing gods found it deplorably wrong that the Gareth Bale would not join the greatest of the greats at a World Cup by the time he retired.
But no, Page does not view Sunday in that light.
“In 2016, when we got to the semi-finals, did we punch above our weight? Absolutely,” Page said in Sunday’s post-match press conference. “In Baku, in the last Euros, did we surprise a lot of people by getting out of the group? Probably not, so expectations changed.”
“I didn’t see a miracle tonight. I was full of confidence. Of course we were up against tough opposition, but we’re growing in confidence camp by camp and now. It’s not unusual for us to qualify for major tournaments.”
To some extent, it is Page’s responsibility to say these things, to ensure that the football world does not consistently paint Wales as a perennial underdog for the rest of eternity. To graduate them, if you will.
Yet, yesterday, as Oleksandr Zinchenko rallied his third shot at goal against Hennessey, forcing the 35-year-old keeper into another rolling dive into the Cardiff mud, the sense of underdog was there for all to feel. Wales did not play a good game, and Ukraine arrived in Cardiff to win, urged on by a war-torn nation represented by 1,800 fans that made themselves known all night. As Aaron Ramsey spurned an open chance on goal in the second half, there lurked the small fear that there, in that 10-second window, Wales’ chance to secure the game had gone.
Why? Because in past iterations of this game, that is how the story went. Romania, 1993. Joe Jordan, 1977. Russia, 2003. According to that history, under the waves of pressure from Ukraine, Wales fold. To not, they would need to afford some sort of magic.
But as the red smoke cleared from the celebratory pyro and Hennessey was peeled off the wet grass after being, reasonably, dog-piled by a number of staff and players at the final whistle, what lingered was less a sense of magic and more a simple understanding: Wales would get to the World Cup. It did not matter how. But they would. So, they did.
To refer to this as a game-plan feels gratuitous. Wales’ tactics of pumping it long and hoping for Moore to be on the end of whatever was pumped too long did not tickle the delight of any tacticians in the stadium. Any genuine game-plan was, ostensibly, for inveterate centre-back Ben Davies and effervescent wing-back Neco Williams to have a riotous defensive display (of Wales’ 20 clearances, 14 interceptions, 15 tackles and five blocked shots, Davies and Williams were responsible for 44 per cent of them, with Williams leading the team in clearances [5] and tackles [5]).
And, in the moments when a defensive display skirting the impossible was not enough, Wales found the ability to lean on their No. 1, a man who had played 270 minutes of club football this season, which consisted of six goals conceded and two saves in a Carabao Cup third-round penalty shoot-out.
“The keeper from Wales did an unbelievable job,” Oleksandr Zinchenko said afterwards of Hennessey. “Definitely man of the match. Incredible saves. I don’t think we deserved to lose today, such a tight game and so tough.”
And, to large extent, Zinchenko is right. Ukraine’s 68 per cent possession, 22 shots at goal, seven corners and three big chances created cut a convincing argument that Ukraine deserved to win, but Wales, driven on by some unspoken, unstoppable force that defies logic, won instead. All of it feels a little unbelievable.
Yet, below the surface of what looked and felt unbelievable were the distinctly substantial virtues of resilience, indomitable courage and sheer conviction throughout the squad, qualities that have underpinned and driven Wales throughout the campaign.
Last March, after Wales slugged out a 1-0 victory over Czech Republic in a silent chamber that was Cardiff City Stadium in their second World Cup qualification match, Page praised the squad for its unflappable tenacity. That same match, Page was asked if Wales were still considered the underdogs on the long road to Qatar.
Page’s answer rang in a similar timbre to that on Sunday: No.
The answer is one that Page has been throwing about since he took over Wales’ helm in November 2020. This is not unusual, Wales being here, at football’s big boy table. This is the norm.
“[Gary Speed] started the culture. Chris Coleman, he took it to another level and I’ve inherited that group,” Page said on Sunday. “We’re just confident going into games now. We don’t hope to qualify for the Euros and World Cup now, we believe we can do it.”
Of course, if you asked any of the number of Wales fans falling over themselves in jubilation in the aftermath, some might, in the immediacy, argue that a stroke of luck – or multiple strokes of luck, depending on how much time you have to speak to them at the pub – was required. Because it is still surreal to be here, singing about arriving at a real live World Cup, this little country so oft-associated with tragicomic football calamities.
Make no mistake, Sunday was a petri dish for such calamities.
But Wales held their cool. So they did in Belarus, when Gareth Bale stirred a game-winning hat-trick – the first Welshman to score a second hat-trick in Welsh history. And, of course, Austria. But also against Turkey in the summer, when Aaron Ramsey covered every blade of grass with his colours as Wales won 2-0, pieces of his boots still burnt in the Sinobo grass. And against Czech Republic in March, when Daniel James – the 5-foot-6 winger – rose above an indomitable yellow wall to head home a last-gasp winner.
For all the talk of magic and miracles, quality and game-plans underpin them. What was the plan exactly on Sunday? To win. To win at all costs. And that is what Wales did. That it was not particularly pleasing on the eye means little to the jubilation in the stands and the dressing room.
“They know that competitions like this don’t come round that often,” Page said in the lead-up to Sunday’s match. “They will be throwing absolutely everything into it.”
Perhaps, then, the result should be no shock or surprise to fans, as Page and the squad insist. After all, the players in this team know what is required to grind out results and see through a victory. They are no longer novices to the occasions, to the taste of international competition. Wales have qualified for consecutive European Championships and now, for the first time in 64 years, a World Cup.
Miracles are, in essence, a mechanism for coping. A way of explaining how the seemingly unreal parts of reality shift into gear and fundamentally work. And while this territory can feel inexplicable at times for Wales fans, it is not miraculous.
Wales are going to a World Cup. And no, it is not hinged on a miracle. This squad has explained how they have done it time and time again.