Belgium v Cymru
Monday 9th June
Stade Roi Baudouin, Brussels
UEFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group J
As the old saying goes; ‘The only thing certain in life is death, taxes and Cymru playing Belgium in the Qualifiers’. Cymru headed to Brussels top of Group J, to take on the 8th ranked team in the FIFA Rankings. Belgium unbeaten in the last 41 qualifying matches, their last defeat was against Cymru in 2015.
Embed from Getty ImagesBelgium coming off their 1 – 1 draw against North Macedonia, made three changes with Leandro Trossard, Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans replacing Nicolas Raskin, Alexis Saelemaekers and Hans Vanaken.
Cymru also made three changes; Jordan James, David Brooks and Chris Mepham who replaced the injured Neco Williams with Kieffer Moore and Liam Cullen moved to the bench.
Embed from Getty ImagesCymru started the game with hopes of upsetting Belgium yet again but that hope was dashed in a twelve minute period early in the first half. After a couple of early corners from Belgium they managed to get the ball in the box and a shot from close range hit Brennan Johnson on the arm. The referee pointed to the spot. A harsh decision considering his arms were by his side. VAR felt the same has it took them over four minutes to give the penalty.
Romelu Lukaku eventually took the penalty, a low shot to Darlow’s right, unfortunately he dived to his left. 1-0.
Embed from Getty ImagesFour minutes later and Belgium made it two. Quick passes in the center by hosts, opened up the Cymru midfield, a ball out to Trossard who controlled it with one touch then a pass to De Cuper, who cut it back to Youri Tielemans, He finished things with an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner made it 2-0.
With only 27 minutes on the clock Belgium made it 3. Doku took the ball into the box past two Cymru defenders, taking the ball to back to the edge of the box and fired a low hard shot to Darlow’s right. Two stunning goals in a matter of minutes. 3-0, game over?
Embed from Getty ImagesJust as it looked like we were heading into half time 3-0 down. A cross into the Belgium box was met by Chris Mepham at the far post, only to be clattered by Matz Sels in the Belgium goal, penalty! Harry Wilson steps up and puts it to Sels left sending him in the wrong direction. 3-1 half time.
Before that goal I thought I’d just had a paragraph left to write of this report, summarising Belgium strolling through the Second Half, but this is the new Cymru, the never say die Cymru.
Embed from Getty ImagesSeven minutes into the Second Half a one-two between Harry Wilson and Brennan Johnson sent Wilson down the right hand side. He cut back in and with a low cross that found Sorba Thomas on the left of the penalty area. Thomas being the calmest man in the stadium puts the ball through Sels legs 3-2!
Cymru spent a few minutes on the front foot when in the 70th minute, Johnson took the ball deep into the Belgium half. He passed to Harry Wilson on the left who crossed to Thomas. He was in the same spot that he’d been for his goal, but this time he headed the ball straight across goal, to be met by Brennan Johnson to head it home! 3-3!
Embed from Getty ImagesY Wal Goch were going wild in the stands, thinking we’d somehow gotten something out of this game. Then with nine minutes left, a pass out to the touchline in front of Craig Bellamy was passed back inside with the boss going mad that the ball had gone out of play. Despite his protests the ball found its way to Lukaku in the area who puts it in the back of the net. Fortunately for Cymru, VAR wanted to keep the excitement going and stepped in and disallowed the goal agreeing with Bellamy to keep it 3-3!
Having once said that he was sick of playing Cymru, it was Kevin De Bruyne’s turn to make us sick. With two minutes left in normal time, Youri Tielemans picked up the ball and was given far too much time and space by the Cymru defence. His cross was met by De Bruyne’s left foot at the back post. 4-3! The 8 minutes of added time was sadly not enough for Cymru to make another comeback.
Embed from Getty ImagesA crazy game that for a moment felt like we had gotten a point from nowhere. I mentioned earlier, this is a different Cymru. Never give up, scared of no team. I can take losing if they put up a fight in defeat and this was one hell of a fight. Revenge in Cardiff? No doubt there will be a few more twists and turns before that match.
Bellamy and the team did us proud tonight, enjoy the summer boys and come out fighting.
@StephenJBaker with the summary.