Go back 18 months and see a group drawn where Wales were 4th seeds from 5. See a group that included Italy, that’s right, the famous Azzurri, World Cup winners and one of the glamour nations in World football. Another team who at the time were called Yugoslavia, they’re not bad either. Finland sporting Liverpool defender Sammy Hypia, former Liverpool player Jari Litmanen, now of Ajax, Forsell of then Chelsea, and now Birmingham another team who were far better than Wales.
What did we dream of? Automatic qualification? Yeah right, like we’re doing that every couple of years. No, seriously, at the very best Wales fans dreamed of finishing runners up behind Italy and the pipe dream of qualification to Euro 2004.
Then Wales go mad. Finland away – Win. Italy at home – Win (honest, 2 – 1 Bellisimo), then Azerbaijan twice, the whipping boys saw Wales bag 6 points.
Now it’s different, can we go all the way?
Then disaster, Serbia (not Yugoslavia anymore) beat us, then Italy get their revenge, the battered and bruised Welsh army make it back from Milan after a 4 – 0 drubbing.
So it comes to Wednesday September 10th. A big day for me personally. It’s my sons 12th birthday, half time in the Millennium Stadium and his name is read out. Thanks Ali, I owe you one.
The 1 – 1 draw in Belgrade between Italy and Serbia meant that if Wales had won then it was in our own hands to qualify for Euro 2004 with 1 game to go. With Wales drawing 1 – 1 we have ensured a play off place. A fantastic achievement but it could have been so much more.
I have to stop there though. The draw against Finland, that guaranteed a play off chance for Euro 2004, was a big result for Wales. For the opening 4 minutes and the closing 7 or 8 minutes Wales were the team on top a threat and a danger. For the 80 or so minutes in between we were battered by a Finland team that wiped the floor with us.
Wales scored too early. Simon Davies scored in the 4th minute and from then on were defended the lead until Forsell levelled in the 80th minute. Wales by then were down to 10 men. Koumas off for 2 yellow cards.
Finland threw it all at us and a heroic performance from Paul Jones kept them out. I thought Jones was man of the match, Hartson was his usual quality target man and the unsung hero in my book was Rhys Weston. While at times vulnerable I thought he coped well and I hope the injury that forced him off in the second half will not affect Cardiff this weekend.
I dread to imagine the shot count. 20 – 5 in Finland’s favour maybe. Earnie played the 90 mins, he nearly won the game at the end, slippy feet and the reluctance to shoot on sight meant a chance was wasted.
I’m gutted that we have probably missed the chance qualify automatically. I happy we have made the play offs and now I’m hopeful that Serbia, with nothing to play for, will not cause Wales a problem in October and I’m praying that Azerbaijan perform a miracle and hold the Italians.
We are nearly there, but we have been the nearly men before. Come on Wales.
External reports
The Western Mail
BBC