Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
A quartet of International Friendlies involving European Nations yesterday and here is the best of the action
Andorra vs Moldova
Liechtenstein vs Faroe Islands
Ukraine vs Wales
Northern Ireland vs Slovenia
It’s now 3 matches without a win for Wales and coincidentally Gareth Bale hasn’t played in any of those. Now it would be easy to make the obvious link that Wales = Bale but it does show how much of a boost he gives that said. I guess it would be unfair to say there is a dependence on Bale as such but it would have been interesting to see what the results would have been had Bale been fit and available for selection.
Another factor that would have gone against Wales over the last few days was the fact that Aaron Ramsey was also out missing through injury. If you take those two out of the Wales equation then they really do look like a different proposition altogether.
In terms of the other home nation a solid win for Northern Ireland and Conor Washington marked his home debut in the perfect way by getting the games only goal to see his side beat Slovenia in Belfast. That victory last night has now seen Michael O’Neill’s side go 10 games unbeaten for the first time ever
Momentum and confidence is absolutely key going into a major tournament and Northern Ireland seem to have that in abundance as of late, they were unlucky not to beat Wales last Thursday after being pegged back by a late equaliser but last night’s win was nothing short of what they deserved.
Northern Ireland are going to be one of the outsiders when they make the short trip over to France in June but one thing that’s for sure is they will certainly not be a pushover.
