THE WELSH UNDERDOGS READY TO SNARL AT DANISH DARLINGS
Wales were doing their best last night to create the atmosphere they have been denied here. as 5,000 Danes began pouring into amsterdam to watch their team — the darlings of this tournament — the Welsh Fa were compiling a medley of clips of schoolchildren singing the national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, for the team to view, having asked them to make that a part of their day.
With Dutch authorities refusing access to Wales fans and every local in Holland seemingly cheering for Denmark, it is going to be more of the attrition that interim manager Rob Page’s side have encountered everywhere they have travelled in this tournament — from a Turkey-loving Baku to an Italy-obsessed Rome.
Gareth Bale laughed when it was put to him that everyone in the world seemed to be supporting the other team.
‘That’s normal, anyway!’ he said. ‘We’re always the underdog. We’re used to that tag. But it doesn’t make any difference to us.’
Both Bale and Page spoke well about Christian eriksen, whose collapse on the pitch against Finland two weeks ago has engendered such extraordinary support for the Danish team.
‘What a great job the Denmark team did with that,’ Bale said of the side, who circled the player, and captain simon Kjaer, who is expected to receive some form of honour from UeFa when this tournament is over.
But the biggest challenge tomorrow for a Wales side who had grown accustomed to garnering the neutral support will be shutting all of that noise out.
It will not be easy. There will be a temptation to use the atmosphere to create a form of siege mentality, though as striker Kieffer Moore observed on Thursday, that could distract and hamper the team.
‘The world has taken note of what happened and the emotion involved,’ Page said last night. ‘But we can’t get involved in that now. It’s work as usual for us. We have a job to do and we want to go out and finish it.’
Wales can usually bank on their fierce, small-nation mentality giving them an edge, though this is very much how the Danes view themselves, too.
‘Wales remind us of ourselves,’ their coach Kasper Hjulmand said last night. But Page (right), who is expected to return to the starting line-up and formation who secured four points in the group stage, can take strength from the fact Wales are under less pressure than when entering their last-16 game against Northern Ireland five years ago yesterday.
In Parc des Princes back then, Wales found themselves as improbable favourites, having beaten england to top their group.
Here, the onus is on the Danes, seven places above 17th-placed Wales in the FIFa world rankings, to find an ending befitting their own narrative.
‘For us, the pressure is off, Welsh defender Ben Davies said earlier this week. ‘We have kind of surpassed that pressure stage of getting out of the group. Now it is about seeing how far we can go.’
In Denmark, there is angst about penalties, three years after the nation’s exit from the 2018 World Cup in a shoot-out against Croatia. Kasper schmeichel saved two Croatian kicks — in addition to one in extra-time — but three Danes fluffed theirs.
They have practised kicks far more assiduously this time but schmeichel was extremely reluctant to discuss the subject. ‘I’m not talking about penalty kicks,’ he said this week. ‘I never talk about them. It would be foolish to give something away.’ Outperforming schmeichel would certainly be sweet for Wales’ Danny Ward, who cannot get a Premier league game at leicester because of him, though there was mutual admiration between the two last night. ‘I don’t see any weakness in him,’ schmeichel said of Ward. ‘He’s a complete goalkeeper.’ Page has had his players walking up from the halfway line to create a sense of how a shoot-out will be. ‘We’re prepared for it,’ he said. The interim manager, catapulted on to this stage in Ryan Giggs’ absence, cited Graham Taylor — a manager who had more than his share of struggles in tournament football with england — as one he learned much from. They were together at Watford for five years during Page’s playing days as a centre-half. ‘It’s years later you have a little bit of time to reflect and you look back on what Graham used to do,’ said Page. ‘His man management was excellent. He knew when to get players on to the grass and when to give them downtime. He donned about four or five different hats — coach, manager, fitness coach, psychologist. Of course, you’re going to learn a lot from that.’
Page has five players on yellow cards, though there will be no caution tonight, even though bookings are not wiped out until after the quarter-finals.
‘It’s all out now,’ said Page. ‘The gloves are off now. We are in the knockout stages and there is no managing bookings. We are fully ready for it now.’
There are certainly reasons for belief. This is a different Wales side from the one beaten twice in three months by Denmark in the Nations league, three years ago. eriksen, the man now missing, was the dominant Danish player in both games, scoring twice in aarhus.
as always, much may depend on a moment of genius from Bale, who always seems to find a way when the big games like this come along. It would be no surprise if this is the game when the 31-year-old breaks his run of 14 games without a goal for Wales.
Yesterday it was Bale whom the continental journalists wanted to talk about, though as always in this tournament he refused to let the conversation go that way.
‘It’s not really about me,’ he said. ‘It’s about Wales and the game. I’m not bothered what people think of me. all I’m worried about is trying to do my best for Wales, trying to get us through to the next round.’