Cymru Women v Croatia Women
Stok Racecourse Stadium
Friday 5th April 2024
Stephen @stephenjbaker is back with a review on Cymru’s opening Nations League match against Croatia.
The Rhian Wilkinson era of Cymru Women’s football began in North Wales at the Racecourse Ground – the scene of many a famous Welsh football victory. Many fans wondered what style of play this new era would bring. It didn’t take long for Y Wal Goch to get excited. Straight from the kick off Croatia dropped into a low block and Cymru attacked. Within three minutes the Red Wall was on its feet cheering the first goal.
Embed from Getty ImagesRhiannon Roberts won the ball from a Croatian throw-in and passed the ball on to Angharad James. She, in turn, knocked it on to Rachel Rowe 30 yards out, who ran at the Croatian defence. Drawing four defenders to her at the edge of the box, she passed to Jess Fishlock to her left. Fishlock perfectly controlled the ball with the outside of her right foot, then calmly placed the ball in the bottom right hand corner to make it 1-0.
Embed from Getty ImagesFor the rest of the first half Cymru were in total control. Croatia continued with the low block and did not trouble Olivia Clark in the Cymru goal. The only criticism, if you could call it a criticism, that you could level against this Cymru team was that they went into the half time break only being one goal up.
I would love to know what was said in the changing room by Rhian Wilkinson at half time because the Cymru side was back out on the pitch early, and within four minutes of the kick off Cymru made it two.
Embed from Getty ImagesAn excellent 35 yard pass from Gemma Evans to Jess Fishlock who controlled it on her chest. Then, with the keeper closing in on her, she managed to flick it over the incoming Croatian. The ball bounced off the crossbar where Fishlock headed home from a yard.
You could say with your tongue in cheek that Jess Fishlock did a one-two with the crossbar, but she is one player who would try something like that. With goal number 41 and 42 Fishlock goes ahead of Gareth Bale (41 goals) in the all time Cymru goal scoring list. She’s now two goals behind Helen Ward on 44.
Embed from Getty ImagesTuesday’s match against Kosovo could be Fishlick’s 150 cap. What a servant to Cymru football! We are privileged to watch her play in the red shirt.
Two minutes after that goal, Fishlock turned provider when Croatia tried to play the ball out from the back. Fishlock and Elise Hughes rushed the Croatian defender into passing the ball to Vracevic who must have felt Angharad James running in behind her. Slightly mis-controlling the pass was all James needed to take control. One pass to Fishlock on edge of the box, who then passed to Rachel Rowe on her left. With one drop of Rowe’s left shoulder, enough space was created around the two Croatian defenders to slot home the ball through the legs of the centre back into the bottom right hand corner.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe scoring was finished off five minutes later when Sophie Ingle in midfield neatly controlled the ball. Then with a volley pass to Gemma Evans, who with one glance up saw Angharad James waving, launched a perfect 25+ yard cross field pass to the in-running James. She volleyed home from a tight angle to make it four.
Embed from Getty ImagesNot long after this goal changes were made and Cymru easily saw out the rest of the match with Ceri Holland hitting the crossbar with a long range effort, it could have easily been more that the four goals.
Great team performance with 75% possession and 19 shots (9 on target) compared to the 4 shots from Croatia (just the one on target). Seren y Gêm was Jess Fishlock with her two goals but there were excellent performances all over the pitch for Cymru.
Embed from Getty ImagesPerfect start for Rhian Wilkinson who looked like she kicked every ball on the sideline. It was great to see such passion from the bench. Wilkinson will now take her team to Kosovo for the game on Tuesday where hopefully Cymru will end the international window with a 100% record