Still here and going there: Wales end 64 years of waiting

Dust off that old Feeder LP and crack open a bottle of Brains, folks, because Wales are going to the Human Rights World Cup! Ending a 64-year wait to take part in Fifa’s lucrative jamboree was never going to be easy against an extraordinary Ukraine team and the seething mass of fans in red were grateful to not one, but two 32-year-old talismanic captains for taking them to Qatar. Poor Andriy Yarmolenko. He deserved better than the ignominy of giving Gareth Bale’s dipping free-kick a Sandy Brown-style finish. Still, that he and his teammates were playing at all was an incredible achievement in itself – and to be the slicker side for large parts of the match was testament to the kind of talent and resolve The Fiver could only ever dream of possessing.

It was a heady afternoon at the Cardiff City Stadium that began with folk legend Dafydd Iwan leading a raucous rendition of Yma o Hyd and ended with Wales players standing en masse to applaud the fans of Ukraine who still don’t know if their country will play another game of football, while Russia continues its barbaric assault on their homeland. The headlines centred on Bale after the match, but had it not been for Wayne Hennessey and Ben Davies taking turns playing Pong with every Ukraine strike on goal, the Wales captain would already be 18 holes into his retirement.

A giddy Bale, who roared that the victory was “the greatest result in the history of Welsh football” [Mickey Thomas may disagree – Fiver Ed], will now have to choose which club’s physios get the chance to keep him fit enough to play at the HRWC in November and December. “I’ve got loads [of offers],” beamed Bale, who stomped around for 83 minutes despite being hampered by back spasm-knack. According to red-hot