Cymru can still harbour faint hopes of automatic qualification for Euro 2024 after the 2-0 win in Latvia this week. With three games left – home to Croatia in October, then away to Armenia and home to Turkey in November – it looks like we are going to need a minimum of two wins and a draw to finish in the top two and qualify for Germany next year. If that should happen, it would be an amazing third consecutive appearance at the Euros – but, let’s be frank, the chances of it happening are as remote as…er…as…um…as a very remote thing. I’m contemplating whether it might be worth me repeating what I did so successfully in World Cup qualifying – betting against myself by piling money on the outcome I don’t want and thereby cunningly putting myself in a win-win situation. We shall see.
The match at the Skonto Stadium in Riga, although no classic, was pretty good entertainment. Or perhaps I’m only saying that because it was such a refreshing change to see Cymru dominant in all departments against a side ranked 134th out of 211 in the world and 45th out of 55 in Europe. Stand-out performances came from the deep midfield duo of promising 19-year-old Jordan James of Birmingham City (born England, Welsh father) alongside Ethan Ampadu, now at last with a permanent club (Leeds United) after years of being treated as loan-fodder by Chelsea. On his 84th appearance captain Aaron Ramsey scored his 21st goal, which means he is now only two goals away from joining Trevor Ford (1923-2003) and Ivor Allchurch (1929-1997) as Cymru’s joint third-highest scorer of all time, and three appearances away from overtaking 85-cap Gary Speed (1969-2011) and 86-cap Ashley Williams to become the 5th most-capped player behind Bale, Gunter, Hennessey and Southall. The heart-warming highlight came in the last minute when slim and slippery David Brooks scored the clincher with a subtle chip – his first goal for Cymru since before his enforced two year absence from football following treatment for Stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma.
The result brings the head-to-head record against Latvia to P3, W3, D0, L0, Goals F5-A0. Discounting teams only played once, this consolidates Latvia’s position as one of eight countries Cymru have an immaculate 100% record against. Don’t get excited; the other seven are a motley medley of micro-states and minnows (Andorra, Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, San Marino and Trinidad & Tobago), but Latvia with a population of nearly 2 million are comfortably the largest of the eight. Incidentally, of the 15 new nation states, including Latvia, formed after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, Cymru have yet to meet six of them: European sides Lithuania and Kazakhstan, and Asian sides Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. I sense an opportunity here for me to crack some feeble gag around the name ‘Stan/Stanley’, but I’m going to resist getting myself into another fine mess…
I’ll end this piece with a brief mention of the friendly in Cardiff against South Korea four days before the Latvia game, in which the small crowd saw a satisfying and useful 0-0 draw in the first ever meeting between the two sides. Along with the clean sheet against Latvia, maybe this shows that manager Rob Page is concentrating on what he does best and organising a defence that will be difficult to penetrate in the tough challenges ahead. South Korea became the 78th different opponent Cymru have played in 147 years. Given that five of those opponents no longer exist and that FIFA currently has 211 members, this means there are still 138 nations we have yet to play. Four are in Europe: the aforementioned Lithuania and Kazakhstan plus Kosovo and Gibraltar. That figure will be cut to three when Cymru play Gibraltar in October at Wrecsam in preparation for the Croatia showdown. Hey, here’s an opportunity to contrive some dodgy one-liner about local rock apes flinging shit in all directions! On reflection, I don’t think I’ll bother…