Harry Wilson’s dynamism proving symbolic of Page’s new-look Wales
It was a burst that proved the catalyst for Wales’s resounding 4-1 win over Finland, another absorbing night under the lights in Cardiff. With a couple of minutes gone, Harry Wilson received the ball on the left flank, about 30 yards from goal, and punched a pass into Brennan Johnson with the outside of his left foot. Seeking a one-two, Wilson charged past five blue shirts, picked up the baton on the perimeter of the box then beat another in Matti Peltola before getting a shot away. It was an arced run that quickened the pulse and subsequently soothed the inevitable anxieties in the stands.
David Brooks pounced to volley in the rebound and, while it was not entirely straightforward from there, it went a long way to ensuring Wales have what promises to be another electric evening in the calendar. On Tuesday they host Poland in a winnertakes-all playoff final, a place at the Euro 2024 finals in Germany the prize. The incisive, instinctive link-up play between Wilson, Johnson and Brooks also spoke to the noises Rob Page has made in recent months about this new-look Wales side. Wilson’s scurrying run embodied the dynamism, zest and unpredictability the Wales manager acknowledged was missing in their meek group-stage exit at the World Cup in Qatar. Page believes this younger group are fitter and gamer, and it is hard to argue.
Wilson’s talent has never been in doubt. He became Wales’s youngest player when he made his debut in Belgium aged 16 years and 207 days and was highly regarded by Liverpool, whom he joined as an eight-year-old. Fruitful loans to Hull then Derby in the Championship prompted Premier League interest. But after a season in the top flight with Bournemouth, it became clear he would not breakthrough at Anfield and he spent the next two seasons on loan in the second tier, at Cardiff then Fulham, whom he later joined permanently.
If it feels as if Wilson has finally settled at Fulham, he also looks at home for Wales. His double helped them to an impressive victory over Croatia last October and he continues to evolve, his man-of-the-match display on Thursday the latest compelling evidence. Wilson hounded Robert Ivanov early on, a sign of Wales’s intention to hurt Finland with their speed and direct running. Wilson has played as a false 9 and an attacking midfielder for his country but began off the left wing, a patch once reserved for Gareth Bale to work his magic. Page accepts Bale’s retirement has allowed bit-part players to step out of the shadows.
“Harry loves getting on the ball in those pockets,” Page says. “With the threat that we have got with Brennan in behind with his pace, there’s not a defence in Europe that would want to play against them; the constant threat of Brennan, the intelligence of David Brooks. All three of them love the way we play at the minute, they are relishing it and I think it shows. He has done it consistently in the Premier League in a similar role for Fulham. They are playing with smiles on their faces.”
The profile of this Wales has shifted to the point that Wilson, who turned 27 on Friday, was the second-oldest outfield player in their starting lineup, behind Ben Davies. The 30-year-old Tottenham defender is one of the few players left from the squad that enjoyed that extraordinary, gamechanging run to the semi-finals at Euro 2016, the others from that period under Chris Coleman being Aaron Ramsey, the 33year-old captain whose fitness struggles have pushed him to the periphery, and Wayne Hennessey, the 37-year-old whose last competitive Wales appearance ended in calamity, with the goalkeeper was sent off for flattening Iran’s Mehdi Taremi before Wales crumbled to a costly World Cup defeat.
It was Wilson who replaced Bale the night Wales squeaked past Ukraine to reach the World Cup in their last playoff final. He was solely used as a substitute at the delayed Euro 2020, his frustration compounded by being sent off in the humbling by Denmark. The 19-year-old Jordan James, the tidy midfielder who is the youngest in the squad, watched that unfold at home with his parents. Wilson was among the 10,000-strong red wall five years earlier, in the stands at Stade de Bordeaux when Bale and Hal Robson-Kanu scored to beat Slovakia in their Euro 2016 opener. Now he is at the thrust of a Wales team hoping to make it to a third straight Euros and a fourth major tournament in five.