It’s the last thing I want to do, but here I will bring my coverage of Euro 2024 qualifying to a close, if only for completion’s sake.

After a grindingly stressful 90 minutes of normal time and 30 minutes of extra time Cymru drew 0-0 with Poland in the play-off final in Cardiff and were then eliminated 5-4 on penalties. This was both Cymru’s first ever experience of extra-time and first ever penalty shoot-out. Penalty shoot-outs were adopted by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in 1970 following that summer’s World Cup in Mexico, and have been torturing/enrapturing fans in the club game as well as the international game ever since. Cymru managed to avoid the dreaded shoot-out through all these years only because we so rarely if ever reached the knock-out stages of competitions when there could be no draws and there had to be a winner (prior to IFAB’s rule change tied matches were resolved by the drawing of lots). Well, I suppose it was sure to happen eventually. We’re no longer shoot-out virgins, and all I can say is that if Cymru didn’t take part in one again for another 54 years it would be too soon. Oi IFAB! Bring back the lottery of lots!

I don’t do what-ifs and might-have-beens, so I’m not going to go anywhere near the anguish of missing out on Euro 2024 in Germany. Instead I’ll glean the smallest of consolations from the fact that the match result goes into the records as a 0-0 draw since penalty shoot-outs aren’t included in soccer statistics (likewise the penalties scored aren’t included in overall goal-scoring records). This means the dismal head-to-head record against Poland has slightly improved, reaching P11, W1, D3, L7, Goals F6-A13. Yes, I’m grasping at thin straws – but there are tentative reasons to be slightly optimistic about Cymru’s future prospects having gone toe-to-toe with the tough, worldly-wise Poles for two hours. However they reman one of Cymru’s bogey sides. We are now in a sequence of 10 matches without beating them. Our only victory so far came in the first ever meeting, a World Cup qualifier in 1973 at Ninian Park, won 2-0 with second-half goals from Leighton James and Trevor Hockey (1943-1987).

I will now take a break from football writing until the autumn when the 2024/25 Nations League begins and the announcement of the European qualifying groups for the triple-hosted (Canada/Mexico/USA) and expanded 48-team 2026 World Cup draws closer. Oh my Lord! Mercy! Mercy!