Cymru completed a deeply disappointing season with another avoidable defeat, this time in a friendly against Romania at the Steaua Stadium in Bucharest. This was Cymru’s first encounter with Romania for 33 years, since an infamous November night at Cardiff Arms Park in 1993 that I have no intention of reliving again – any masochists who want reminders can read Wales and the World Cup and Terry Yorath (1950-2026). The 2-1 loss takes the head to head record against Romania to P6, W1, D1, L4, Goals F8, A11.

The result didn’t matter much, except in so far as it perpetuated a disturbing trend of only beating minnows while repeatedly failing to beat any side that’s fairly decent. The final stats for Cymru’s latest season that went from March 2025 to the Romania match adds up to P14, W5, D4, L5 – which doesn’t seem so bad, until you realise the five wins were against Kazakhstan (twice), Liechtenstein (twice) and North Macedonia. Like Cymru, Romania narrowly failed to qualify for the World Cup and are in a rebuilding phase. They are only ranked 56th in the current FIFA rankings (Cymru 37th), but it seems that any side in the top 100 is now becoming an insurmountable hurdle.

Craig Bellamy needs to go back to the drawing board, ditch the coaching-manual bromides and inject sparks of much-needed creativity, imagination and unpredictability into his squad by the time Cymru return to action in September in a tough Nations League A Group that also includes Denmark, Norway and Portugal. As a realist, I shudder at the prospect.