Wales embark on life after Gareth Bale with European Championship qualifying opener against Croatia | Football News

After a 64-year wait came the dispiriting, grim reality. 

It was 117 days ago, at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, where Wales’ World Cup dreams were extinguished. By the time Marcus Rashford was putting the seal on a resounding England win, Robert Page and his players looked resigned to their fate.

With the retirement of Gareth Bale came confirmation that an era had ended. A generational talent has rightly been feted over these winter months, but Wales must rise again and new stars must fill the sizeable void left behind.

Wales ended their Qatar campaign bottom of their group with just one point and with question marks over Page’s selection for the first time in his tenure.

No longer viewed as the plucky underdog with a population of 3 million, rather a nation ranked a respectable 28th in the world, a positive start to the European Championship qualifying campaign is a must.

How will Page adjust without Bale?

Croatia are big favourites after finishing third at the 2022 World Cup, while Wales are rebuilding after the departures of several key players since the tournament in Qatar.

The hosts have won their last five matches in all competitions, last enjoying a longer winning run between October 2009 and May 2010.

It is a tough opening assignment in Split on Saturday, made harder by the withdrawal of Brennan Johnson.

He was due to join the squad on Thursday as the Nottingham Forest medical team handed over the assessment of Johnson’s groin injury to the Wales medical staff.

Wales have not been able to assess Johnson’s injury. As a result, Johnson did not travel to Croatia with the rest of the squad when they flew from Cardiff to Split on Friday afternoon.

Johnson’s absence is a blow for Wales who are already without vice captain Ben Davies through injury and are beginning a new era after the World Cup after the retirement of four senior players including Bale.

Bale was so often the difference for Wales, especially in the big games. Johnson is seen as Bale’s natural heir, but they are surely impossible boots to fill, and it won’t be until the next set of fixtures at least that he will have the opportunity to make his case.

Return of captain Ramsey

The retirement of Bale, as well as Chris Gunter, Joe Allen and Jonny Williams quitting the international scene, has left Wales in a transitional phase and five uncapped players are in the squad.

Gunter has joined the Wales coaching staff for this month’s European Championship qualifiers. Aaron Ramsey is captain again after first being handed the role as a 20-year-old by Gary Speed.

Ramsey was relieved of the captaincy within 18 months by Speed’s successor Chris Coleman, and his subsequent experience makes him far better suited to the role this time.

Sky Sports News reporter Geraint Hughes wrote in his reporter notebook column this week: “Ramsey’s club career has been one of some debate over recent years.

“First it was: would he stay at Arsenal? Then Juventus, where at one stage he looked settled and in form, to then moving out on the fringes and ultimately a loan to Rangers. But is he now at last settled at a club?”

It is indeed ‘take two’ for Rambo, and this is very much a case of evolution rather than revolution for Wales.

Page scrutiny

Wales manager Page says mistakes were made at the World Cup and that he has addressed them before the start of Euro 2024 qualification.

Some critics called it stage fright, but there were more logical explanations for Welsh struggles. Joe Allen was a forlorn, isolated figure against Iran. Underperformance was in every department. No player was immune from criticism.

High on the list of Welsh errors in Qatar was tactical naivety as the lack of numbers in midfield allowed the opposition to play through Wales at will. Misfortune, a lack of fitness, or a combination of all of the above. There could be few complaints.

The news of Johnson’s injury is far from ideal for Robert Page given the limited time to prepare without him. His form for Forest naturally makes him the heir to Bale’s throne.

Page has credit in the bank after steering Wales to a first World Cup in 64 years, but that will quickly disappear if the European Championship campaign hits the buffers. He must now show his management credentials by guiding his country to the finals in Germany next summer.

Majestic Modric

When Bale retired, Wales fans had good reason to utter: ‘Why not Luka Modric?’

Bale’s former Tottenham and Real Madrid team-mate has plotted Wales’ downfall in previous World Cup and European Championship qualifiers.

Now 37 and still strutting his stuff at Real Madrid, Modric has decided to carry on playing for Croatia ahead of this summer’s Nations League finals.

A decision on whether he continues until the Euro 2024 finals will be made at a later date.

Winless Wales

Wales have never beaten Croatia in six attempts. Croatia have won four of those games, starting with a 2-0 Osijek friendly success in May 2010.

Wales lost both 2014 World Cup qualifiers – 2-0 away and 2-1 at home – and suffered a 2-1 defeat in Osijek in Euro 2020 qualifying.

Bale’s equaliser gave Wales a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture in Cardiff, the same scoreline when the two nations met for the first time in a Varazdin friendly in 2002.

This is a condensed European Championship qualifying campaign, with all eight fixtures taking place this year. Despite the size of the task in Split, Wales can ill-afford to drop points.

What could be Wales’ new potent weapon?

Well, since a run in which they scored 10 consecutive goals in open play between September 2020 and March 2021, more than half of Wales’ last 26 goals have come via set pieces (14, 54 per cent), scoring six via corners, two direct free-kicks, two indirect free-kicks and four penalties in that time.

After all the excitement building up to the World Cup, Wales cannot allow the double blow of losing Johnson and Davies to defeat them.

Sampling the joy of returning to the top table for the first time since 1958, this new era must create their own memories while harnessing the fighting qualities which took the old guard to the grandest stage of all.

The greatest Welsh player of his generation is now but a bystander, but Bale’s legacy lives on.

Having failed to make a wider impact at the World Cup, Wales must rediscover their bite and snarl on the road to Berlin.

Tall order in Split – Opta stats

• Croatia have won their last three home matches against Wales, beating them in May 2010 (2-0, friendly), October 2012 (2-0, World Cup qualifier) and June 2019 (2-1, Euro qualifier).
• Wales are winless in eight games in all competitions (D2 L6) since a 1-0 win over Ukraine in June 2022. It’s Wales’ longest winless run since going 12 games without a win between March 2000 and September 2001.
• Wales have only lost five of their last 40 qualifying matches for major tournaments (W21 D14) and are unbeaten in their last nine such games (W6 D3). In European Championship qualifying, they have only lost three of their last 20 games (W12 D5)
• Croatia have never lost a home European Championship qualifying match (P35 W27 D8), and have won the last five in a row. They’ve also never conceded more than twice on home soil in a Euros qualifier.