Wales’ Gareth Bale. File.
| Photo Credit: AP
The post-Gareth Bale period seemed notably daunting for Wales.
After all, how may a principality with a inhabitants of 3 million actually exchange its greatest ever participant, a Real Madrid nice, as soon as the most costly signing in soccer historical past?
Maybe they needn’t have apprehensive.
With Bale having retired after the World Cup in Qatar and another stalwart, Aaron Ramsey, on his final legs, the Welsh wanted a brand new generation to emerge and blossom — and that’s what has occurred.
On Tuesday, a youthful Wales will look to attain a 3rd straight European Championship tournament when Robert Lewandowski and Poland go to Cardiff City Stadium in a single of three playoff finals.
Tellingly, it will be the primary time this century that Wales secured qualification for a major tournament with out Bale, for thus lengthy the crew’s inspiration and the person who would provide you with these essential objectives again and again.
“It would be just as good as the others, better in some ways,” mentioned Wales captain Ben Davies, the outdated head of the crew at age 30. “It’s different times. We don’t have Gareth Bale this time. That’s a big loss for Wales, our greatest ever player. But that doesn’t mean there’s a different feeling within the camp. We are more than confident with the squad we’ve got.”
That was proven in the best way Wales swept previous Finland with a 4-1 win within the playoff semifinals on Thursday to arrange that all-or-nothing encounter with the Poles. Among the scorers was David Brooks, a midfield playmaker only in the near past given the all-clear after most cancers remedy; Brennan Johnson, a ahead who’s simply beginning to set up himself at Tottenham, one of the highest groups within the Premier League; and Dan James, a winger who’s rebuilding his profession at second-tier chief Leeds after a short spell at Manchester United.
It’s these sorts of gamers with their very own attention-grabbing back-stories and profession arcs who’re popping out of Bale’s shadow now that Wales’ most-capped males’s participant (with 111 appearances) and file scorer (with 41 objectives) is not round.
“We’ve lost superstars with Gaz (Bale) and Joe (Allen),” Wales middle again Joe Rodon mentioned. “It was always going to be difficult for us in the transition period but there is a really good balance in the group.”
Crucially for Wales coach Robert Page, he has players playing regularly for their clubs now. That was often not the case with Bale and Ramsey, who were regularly troubled by injuries and used to arrive for Wales duty far from match sharp. Not that that affected the extraordinary Bale too much.
Ramsey, for example, was named in the latest Wales squad despite having not started a game for six months. Now at Cardiff, the 33-year-old midfielder managed 25 minutes in his latest comeback from injury — on Saturday — and was training alone at times ahead of the Finland game.
In the past, Ramsey would have had to play even if he wasn’t fully fit. Not anymore.
“We’re in a different position because we’ve got a younger squad, a fitter squad, we’ve got players who are playing regularly,” Page mentioned.
The age profile of Wales’ squad should excite their followers. Central midfielder Jordan James, 19, is extremely rated and performs for second-tier Birmingham. Johnson is just 22 and joined Spurs for greater than $60 million final 12 months. Harry Wilson, 26, is beginning to blossom at Fulham. Then there’s Lewis Koumas, an 18‑12 months‑outdated who scored on his debut for Liverpool final month and is not in Page’s squad but.
Wales has had many big-name gamers down the years — Ryan Giggs, Ian Rush, Mark Hughes, Neville Southall and most not too long ago Bale — however not essentially the backup to help them.
With this newest crop, it would show to be the alternative.
