Wales qualified for their first World Cup in 64 years after beating Ukraine in the playoffs. Wales has only made one previous World Cup appearance, reaching the quarterfinals in 1958. Rob Page’s team was placed in Group B in Qatar together with the host nation’s opponents, England, which gives the group even more gravitas. The Welsh achieved some outstanding results on the way to the competition, including overcoming Belarus, holding Belgium to a 1-1 draw in November of last year, and going 1-1 in their two meetings with the Czech Republic. The Dragons finished Group E with 15 points after eight games, winning four, drawing three, and only dropping one match—a 3-1 loss to top-ranked Belgium in March of last year.
All eyes are on their talisman Gareth Bale, but a number of other former and current Premier League players, including Aaron Ramsey, Dan James, Ben Davies, Joe Rodon, Harry Wilson, Neco Williams, and Kieffer Moore, clocked squad-topping game time during qualifying. The stirring speech delivered by actor Michael Sheen on the Sky TV series A League of Their Own, which went viral and sparked a wave of spine-tingling expectation among players and fans alike, must also be brought up since it would be difficult to do otherwise.
Although Moore’s aerial threat and Bale and Ramsey have received most of the attention, Wales’ qualification victory was largely due to their strong defence. Wales finished fourth among the five countries in Group E for open-play goals, shots on goal, and opportunities generated over the course of the eight games, but second for keeping goals out and clean sheets at the opposite end. The cliche that defensive methods pay off in tournament football is something Page is sure to convey in Qatar by using his favourite three-at-the-back formations and trying to stay solid in the centre of the field to stop turnovers and breakaways.
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