Weghorst late show punishes Page boys
IT WILL take much more than the loss of a long unbeaten home record to dampen the party spirit in Wales.
Three days after sealing a place at their first World Cup since 1958, Wales were beaten on home turf for the first time since November 2018. There were two goals in stoppage time, as Rhys Norrington-Davies thought he had secured a draw for Wales, only for Wout Weghorst to restore Holland’s lead. The visitors had been in front since the 50th minute through Teun Koopmeiners.
Yet at the start of the month, Wales boss Rob Page would have accepted defeat in these three Nations League fixtures — last night, at home against Belgium on Saturday and with the Dutch again in Rotterdam on Tuesday — in return for a place in Qatar. Page’s men had their moments here, and the home fans gave a rousing cheers when Gareth Bale came on 13 minutes from full time.
Wales left Bale and Aaron Ramsey out of their starting XI and could have fallen behind early on when Koopmeiners collected a return pass from Noa Lang before his effort was blocked by Ben Davies.
At the other end, Harry Wilson headed Dan James’s corner over and the best chance came when Norrington-Davies put Chris Mepham’s cross wide with a free header.
Before half-time Cody Gakpo got behind the Wales defence only to be denied by Mepham. Adam Davies replaced Danny Ward in goal for the second half and was beaten within five minutes. Jerdy Schouten found Koopmeiners outside the box and the Atalanta midfielder picked out the bottom corner. Wales suddenly levelled when Norrington-Davies headed in Connor Roberts’ cross. But then Frenkie de Jong supplied Tyrell Malacia, whose delivery was powered home by Weghorst.