Wales reach the World Cup the hard way on a night football sadly couldn’t produce two fairy tales – The Warm-Up
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Updated 06/06/2022 at 08:46 GMT
Wales have reached the World Cup and 1958 is a year every quizzer will remember from now until November. They had the unenviable task of having to end Ukraine’s own World Cup dream, and did so after edging a frantic affair on Sunday evening. Elsewhere, Lionel Messi scores five, Sadio Mane regrets saying words, and Footy Scran made us hungry.
Bale says he has 'loads of offers' since leaving Real Madrid ahead of Ukraine clash
From Wales to Qatar
Wales boss Robert Page set the bar pretty high when declaring the World Cup play-off against Ukraine as the biggest match in Welsh history, and the backdrop to yesterday’s tie only made the task even harder.
With the neutral willing Ukraine on, Wales had to focus, write their own history, and try to reach the World Cup under circumstances few others would wish upon themselves, and ultimately it was decided by the cruellest of margins – an Andriy Yarmolenko own goal ending Ukraine’s World Cup dream and sending Wales to the finals for the first time since 1958.
A frantic affair could have produced at least five goals, and should really have seen Ukraine awarded a penalty in the first half, but in the end it was Wayne Hennessey and Ben Davies who proved the difference, denying Ukraine time and again to book their own spot in Qatar.
"I probably think that's my best game in a Welsh shirt to be honest,” Hennessey admitted, and what a time to do it, while an ecstatic Gareth Bale added: "It's the greatest result in the history of Welsh football.”
This really does mean more to Bale, and with talk about his future - and even retirement - surrounding the now former Real Madrid forward, few could begrudge him this moment, and we’ll get at least six more months of Bale playing football (in a Cardiff shirt?) before the nervy group game against England plays out.
Of course, it all came at Ukraine’s expense. Their participation alone was admirable, their performance against Scotland was something else, and on another day a handful of their chances against Wales would have gone in and they’d have made the World Cup – but alas, football doesn’t always follow the script and sadly it couldn’t produce two fairy tales in one night.
“In general I don't think we deserved to lose, but that's football, it happens,” Oleksandr Zinchenko said.
"Football is about emotions, we can bring some great emotions to our fans, but unfortunately today we didn't get the result we wanted.
"Everyone needs to continue to fight, as footballers we need to represent our country as best we can.
"Everyone needs to live in peace and we need to stop the war altogether. Today it's Ukraine, but who knows tomorrow, we need to stay together. I feel sorry for our fans, but I wish Wales all the best for the World Cup."
Me5si
How many, Leo?
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Leo Messi
Image credit: Getty Images
That’s right, a tidy five for Lionel Messi last night, and it’s safe to say he’s enjoying Argentina’s random global tour. A man-of-the-match display in the Finalissima at Wembley followed by five goals against Estonia at Osasuna’s El Sadar, and next? Well, it’s a early pre-World Cup whet-your-whistle friendly against Brazil in…(go on have a guess and scroll down to find out!).
Anyway, what do you say about the man who’s done it all?
"I don't know what else to say about Messi, it's very difficult,” admitted Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni. “You have no words left to describe him. Everything he generates is unique and it's a pleasure to have him in this group. I only have words of thanks to him. It's a pleasure to see him.”
Oh, and this is a take so good we could have just nabbed it, but we’ll rightly just share the tweet instead…
Double Oh – Argentina vs Brazil this Saturday is at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, of course!
Mane, Mane, Mane
It’s a favourite here at The Warm-Up, footballers saying things they shouldn’t while away on international duty, and it’s safe to say Sadio Mane got the shovel out to do some digging after joking he’d do what the Senegalese people want and leave Liverpool.
“I spoke yesterday while joking with a bit of humour and it was everywhere,” Mane said, retrospectively realising his mistake. “I think we'll stop there…”
Although he then added: “Liverpool is a club I respect a lot. The fans adopted me since day one.
“Regarding the future, we'll see.”
Regarding what he’ll say this week, we’ll see as well – particularly with Bayern Munich getting things started…
IN OTHER NEWS
'Inherited thinking'
That moment when a “behind closed doors” match is played in front of a 30,000-plus crowd and jeers meet an anti-racism gesture.
Yep.
And as ever, England manager Gareth Southgate said it best.
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'Difficult to understand' - Southgate on Hungary having fans despite UEFA sanctions
“That felt like inherited thinking to me,” he said, after his side’s lacklustre loss. “We do it to try to educate and I think young people can only be influenced by older people.”
It beggars belief, or, actually maybe it doesn’t any more. Sigh.
IN THE CHANNELS
Talking of World Cups… Plenty of you out there will be aware of the Footy Scran Twitter page, and its heated World Cup FINAL between Oxford City and LA Galaxy went to the wire last night.
And rather fantastically, the clubs got involved too…
RETRO CORNER
You want retro? Here’s retro, in the form of footage that may well get touched up a tad before November. It's Wales’ last World Cup match, a 1958 quarter-final with Brazil.
Loving that music, and the photographers heading onto the pitch after Pele scores – roughly a minute in.
COMING UP
More Nations League, with Moldova taking on Andorra and Latvia facing Liechtenstein in the toughest group D1, while down in A1 there's a mere 2018 final World Cup repeat between France and Croatia.
Bring it on.
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