UEFA Euro 2024 Qualifying Group D
Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff
Admission: £35.00
Programme: None (unofficial programme £3.00)
Attendance:32,774
For my final game of the 2022/23 season, I decided to revisit the Cardiff City Stadium for this competitive international fixture, facilitated by my being in the area anyway, having sat my Welsh Language "Mynediad" exam yesterday evening in Treforest, and with my accommodation being in Trehafod.
It is fair to say that this is a period of transition for Wales, having lost their talisman Gareth Bale following the World Cup, along with several other experienced campaigners, and their current squad does look the weakest it has been for some time, packed with seemingly very average Premier League (and below) players, several of whom do not regularly start for their clubs. They had made a solid start to this campaign though, drawing 1-1 away in Croatia, followed by a 1-0 home win against Latvia, with both fixtures played in late March. Wales' depleted squad should still be strong enough to get a positive result against Armenia, ranked in 97th place in the FIFA rankings (compared with Wales in 26th), and have not won in their last nine games. The two nations had met twice before, back in 2001, with both games ending in draws.
Quite impressively, this game sold out more than a fortnight in advance, a far cry from when Wales home games struggled to attract 10,000, and perhaps reflective of the golden age of success enjoyed by Wales in recent time which has clearly engaged supporters. Unfortunately, it turned out that, sadly, Wales no longer issue programmes for their games, neither printed nor online, although an unofficial one was available, produced by the supporters club, and was a decent enough read about Welsh football in general.
At the end of a hot and sunny day, the famous Red Wall did not disappoint, as the Wales supporters, mostly decked in red and wearing their bucket hats, making an impressive sight around the stadium, gave outstanding vocal support for their team, not least during a rousing rendition of the national anthem. And Wales started the game on the front foot, and after Kieffer Moore saw a header deflected wide, they opened the scoring on ten minutes when, after an Armenia player went down in the centre circle thinking he should have been awarded a free kick, Wales attacked and Brennan Johnson played a beautiful inviting low cross, and Daniel James tapped the ball home at the far post. At that stage, it looked like Wales would go on to cruise to a comfortable win, but in the 19th minute, they were shocked when Armenia equalised out of nothing. After Harry Wilson was tackled on the edge of the Armenia penalty area, the visitors broke quickly and Nair Tiknizyan passed the ball from the left into the area, for an unmarked Lucas Zelarayan to thump the ball home first time from 12 yards out. And this got worse for the Welsh on the half hour mark. Joe Rodon was dispossessed in midfield, and Zelarayan curled in a beautiful cross from the right and Grant-Leon Ramos headed home powerfully from just outside the six yard box. There did look to be plenty of goals in this game, with both sides looking to create chances whilst being shaky at the back. But at half time, it was Armenia who held a slender advantage.
Wales started the second half as they had started the first, on the front foot, but it was Armenia who would score the next goal, on 66 minutes, to give themselves a surprising cushion. That man Zelarayan was again involved, clearly dinking the ball over the top, between two defenders for Ranos to run into before drilling the ball first time low into the bottom right corner of the net from just outside the area. The night was going badly for Wales, but the introduction of David Brooks, for his first Wales appearance since recovering from cancer, saw him given a standing ovation. And the home crowd were on their feet again three minutes later, in the 75th minute, when they gave themselves a real lifeline, reducing the deficit to one goal, when Harry Wilson stabbed home following a long throw in into the box. But after Ranos had rattled the bar, he did score his second and Armenia's fourth in the 75th minute, when Joe Morrell was dispossessed and eventually the ball was worked out to Zelarayan towards the left of the area, and he curled in a lovely shot around the keeper and inside the far post. A tough job to get anything out of this game became even tougher on 78 minutes when Kiefer Moore was shown a straight red card for kicking out at the Armenia keeper during a melee, the ridiculous overreaction of the keeper probably helping to seal Moore's fate, and indeed some of the play acting and gamesmanship employed by the visitors was embarrassing at times. But that aside, they were more than deserving winners on the night, as Wales paid the price for allowing Armenia's technically gifted players far too much time and space to work their magic. As for Wales, this result was surely a hammer blow to Wales' chances of reaching the finals, and now they really need to beat Turkey away on Monday to keep their hopes alive.
Video highlights of this match can be viewed here
Line-ups:
Wales: Ward; Roberts, Rodon, Mepham, Davies; Ampadu, Ramsey (c) (Morrell 67); James (Broadhead 82), Wilson (Bradshaw 83), Johnson (Brooks 71); Moore
Subs n/u: Hennessey, A. Davies, Fox, N.Williams, Harris, J.James, Cabango, Cullen
Armenia: Chancharevich; Dashyan, Calisir (Haroyan 62), Arutiunian, Mkrtchyan; Iwu, Spertsyan (c), Tiknizyan; Barseghyan (Bichakhchyan 63), Zelarayan (Briasco 76), Ranos (Serobyan 88)
Subs: Buchnev, Beglaryan, Shaghoyan, Davidyan, Margaryan, Harutyunyan, Wbeymar, Piloyan
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