Little Wales is a great victory. The history of one national team

A small mountainous country Wales is part of a powerful Britain. But the Welsh themselves every year further and further away from the influence of English politics, both in public life and in the cultural. This small country with a population of just over 3 million people won worldwide fame after the European Football Championship in 2016. Match Portugal - Wales looked, without exaggeration, the whole country.

Football players of their team Welsh people were met as national heroes, and it is not surprising, because these courageous people managed to prove to the whole world that the strength is not in the number of square kilometers that belong to the country, and not in the population. It is courage and persistence in achieving the goal are the hallmarks of the Wales national football team.

History of Welsh football

Wales is one of the oldest football powers in the Old World. The national team of this country held its first match in 1876 against the national team of Scotland and lost it with the score 0: 4.

Welsh though had excellent physical data, were never strong in individual craftsmanship. All of their successes as a team were based on a quality team play and strict adherence to the instructions of the coaching staff.

True, the Wales national team could not boast of any special achievements. So it was until 2016 - this year was marked by a star named Wales. This event just blew up the world football and became a complete surprise for many titled European teams.

Qualifying games

For the first time since 1958 the Welsh made their way to the final stage of the European championship. In their group, they took second place, immediately after the Belgian national team, although in personal meetings the advantage was on the side of Wales.

On the way to the final of the European Championship, Wales team left far behind such teams as the teams of Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and Andorra. For the entire cycle of qualifying matches, the Welshmen missed only 4 goals, which characterizes them as a team that can effectively defend themselves. And Bale's 7 goals (in all they scored 11) brought the team to the finals with a good difference in goals scored and conceded.

Group tournament: final stage

His first match of the group series wards Chris Coleman was conducted with the Slovak national team. Although the national team of Slovakia was not one of the favorites of this tournament, it was impossible to underestimate the rivals. Already in the 11th minute of the match it was Gareth Bale who opened the scoring and led his team forward. The Slovaks took 50 minutes to equalize the score. But football luck that day was clearly on the side of the Welsh, and already in the 81st minute, the goal of Robson-Kanu led the Wales team forward. This victory account they managed to hold until the end of the match, and their way to the European Championship the Welshmen continued, having in the asset 3 points.

The next match Wales - England ended in victory for the British. And this despite the fact that the first to score the Welsh. Setting themselves up for this match, England players understood that Wales is a very ambitious team that, although it does not have such a "star" structure as the English, but will fight until the last minutes of the match. Only goal Daniel at the 92nd extra minute of the match saved the English team from losing points.

Well, probably the most brilliant game that the Welsh team held in the group stage was a match against the Russian national team. The Welshmen once again proved that they came to this tournament to win. Only in the first half of the game, Bale and the company nine times fell into the sash of the gate of the Russian team. 2 of these blows ended in a goal, and another goal scored the Welsh in the second half. Two convincing victories allowed the Wales national team to go to the 1/8 championship.

Victory procession

For the match against Northern Ireland, the Wales team was already emerging as a favorite. But the wards O'Neill studied the tactics of the Welsh team and did not give much scope for the attacks. Only thanks to the Northern Ireland player's own goal, Chris Coleman's team reached the quarterfinals, where they were again waited by the opponents on the qualifying round - the Belgian national team.

The match Wales - Belgium became a huge disappointment for the Belgian fans. Such a stellar composition, which was collected from the Belgians, had almost no team in the tournament. The coach of the Belgian team, Mark Vilmots, could not help his charges when they pulled the balls from the net of their goal one by one. More than a convincing victory of Wales 3-1 became a sensation of this European Championship.

Ronaldo against Bale?

Semifinal promised to be intriguing. The match Portugal - Wales was held with the huge support of the fans of both teams. In the press, this match was dubbed by Bale and Ronaldo, although, of course, everything depended on how much each team could get together and not make silly mistakes.

What could the Portuguese oppose to the players of the Welsh team? Inarticulate game in the group round (3 draws), victory over opponents in extra time or by results of a penalty against the bright and dynamic game of Bale and his comrades.

But the Welsh tale ended exactly in this match, which they lost with a score of 0: 2. Despite the defeat, in the homeland of the players were greeted as real heroes who opened the whole world to a small country on the other side.