Last-minute loss reminds Wales that international football is actually quite difficult - The Warm-Up

THURSDAY'S BIG STORIES Sucker Punch Ad/> For Wales, no Gareth Bale, no Aaron Ramsey, no Joe Allen. For the Netherlands, not a single player that started their convincing win over Belgium. For everybody, another game even though we're well into June now.

And for the Nations League, somehow, a half-decent game despite all of the above. Premier League'I actually like this!' — Carragher praises Richarlison after being told to 'wash mouth'20/05/2022 AT 08:58 What we'd like to do with a game like this — newly-qualified upstarts against a strong team in good form — is project forward to the tournament. Does this show Wales can mix it with the big beasts? Are the Netherlands really coming up on the rails? But something will have gone disastrously wrong somewhere if we see either of these starting XIs in Qatar.

We think there might have been a subtle message in the Dutch starting line-up: You; Want Us To Play; Four Games In; Eleven Days UEFA. Obviously, it's a disgrace that the ancient and noble Nations League isn't being taken with the utmost seriousness. But football insists on teaching us lessons even in less-than-ideal circumstances, and Rob Page will have woken up with plenty on his mind this morning.

Good and bad. You couldn't have blamed Wales if they'd rolled straight into this game from the pubs and clubs of Cardiff; if they'd turned out for the team photo in bucket hats. Once in a generation history-making doesn't happen every day.