By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
The World Cup qualifying match between Belgium and Wales on Friday night was as interesting as expected.
In the highly thrilling 3-1 encounter, Wales proved that it was a team to watch in the future.
Irrespective of the start-studded Belgium team, Wales with a caretaker manager, Rob Page, drew the first blood in the ninth minute of the game.
A combination of Gareth Bale and Wilson proved class and too hot for the Belgium team, driven in the middle by De Bruyne.
“Let’s not be too harsh on ourselves,” said Gareth Bale after the match. “We know they are a great team.”
The brilliance of the Wales goal, though, will be a source of hope for the future. They did not produce many attacks but such was the quality of this one, their first, that the wider context almost felt irrelevant. No matter what happened next, they had this moment to seize upon as they prepare for the summer’s European Championships.
Page will no doubt return to this goal time and time again in the coming days. It was proof of what Wales can do to teams, even those as illustrious as Belgium, and further evidence of how central Bale will be to their hopes in the summer.
It started on the right flank. Wilson slid the ball into Bale, who turned it into the path of Connor Roberts. From there it came back to Bale, slicing through three Belgian shirts like a surgeon’s knife, before the Tottenham Hotspur forward rolled it into the path of Wilson to score with his first touch.
It was ice hockey on grass, each pass delivered with speed and accuracy, and it would have looked rather familiar to De Bruyne in the Belgium midfield, according to AFP report.
The Manchester City midfielder plays this sort of football on a weekly basis, yet here he could only watch helplessly as the Wales machine whirred into action.
“We knew we could hurt them,” said Page. “We have pace and quality, and we have goals in the team. The goal we scored was fantastic and there were a lot of positives.”
Unfortunately for the visitors, the goal came in the ninth minute rather than the 90th. There was plenty of time for Belgium to find their rhythm and to pin back the Wales defence.
An early injury to Joe Allen did not make life any easier for Page’s side, who were already missing Aaron Ramsey and Ben Davies, and it was not long before De Bruyne smashed home an equaliser from range.
The second came just a few minutes later. The patchy pitch in Leuven helped their cause, with Roberts slipping at the back post just as he was preparing to clear Thomas Meunier’s cross. Hazard, brother of Eden, could hardly miss with his close-range header.
“The pitch was not great, to be honest,” said Roberts.
“I’m not sure why we played on such a bad pitch.”
Wales were more adventurous after the break but Lukaku soon put the game beyond their reach from the penalty spot after Chris Mepham swung clumsily at a loose ball, bringing down Dries Mertens.
It confirmed an expected defeat for Wales, who took no joy from the scoreline but plenty of encouragement from their glorious goal.
Belgium were impressive once they went down to that excellent Wilson opener. They imposed themselves, their class and ultimately won in third gear. Wales did well – they were up against a side with too much quality – they now have a friendly against Mexico at the weekend and the Group E clash against Czech Republic ( who beat Estonia 6-2) on Tuesday.