FROM PAGE 13
“Needless to say he did. “I controlled the ball with my right foot and kind of felt a strange shift in momentum, as everybody seemed to start moving in the other direction.
“You need half-a-yard of space as a striker and I thought at the time a Cruyff turn would give me that halfa-yard.
“It ended up being a little more than half-a-yard, if I’m honest! Thibaut Courtois stood in the way. I focussed on hitting the corner of the net with as much power as possible.
“Straight away I ran over to the bench. This was a goal for every one of us, not just me. We are a collective, had been on this journey together for several years. It was important to share the moment.
“I didn’t think anything about whether the goal was a good one, or not, at the time. The most important thing was we were 2-1 up.
“It was only the following morning I began to acknowledge the fuss being made when I was sitting for breakfast with the rest of the team. They were showing me social media clips, I realised it had gone viral. It was at that point I realised ‘Yes, it’s a special goal’.
“It had dawned on us by then that Aaron Ramsey and Ben Davies were suspended for the semi-final, a real blow. To this day I’m convinced we would have beaten Portugal with them. Ramsey’s ability on the ball would have opened them up in the first half, put us on the front foot.”
Coleman’s number two Osian Roberts smiles that Cruyff “got one defender when he first did the twist in 1974. Hal got three... and inside the penalty box, rather than out wide!”
He also offers a fascinating different perspective on the goal, observing: “Everybody talks about Hal and rightly so. It was poetry, he deserves the plaudits. But in terms of the Wales collective, there are things that happen that could have led to a very different headline.
“It starts when Neil Taylor challenges for the ball deep inside our own half. We don’t win possession because of a fluke, it’s because our players are in the correct positions to stop Belgium’s counters. That training ground work.
“It’s passed to Chris Gunter, then Gareth, Aaron goes behind the defender and crosses to Hal.
“By the time Hal shoots, Tayls is in the box. He won the ball in our own third, yet if it had rebounded off Courtois or a defender, he could have scored and had the headlines himself.
“Chris is also up there, just yards from the byline on the right. One moment our full-backs are there helping out in defence, the next they are amongst our most-advanced players.
“Lukaku’s counter goal against Ireland took 10 seconds, Well, ours only took 16. We believe this style is in our DNA too and here is the evidence.” THE VOKES HEADER FOUR minutes are left on the clock, nerves are jangling, Wales are resisting intense Belgian pressure. Then bang, Sam Vokes scores from THAT Chris Gunter cross and it’s game, set and match.
Cue mayhem, perhaps like never before.
We’ve seen an Ian Rush winner against Germany, Craig Bellamy versus Italy, Wales batter England 4-1. But this goal... well, this is dancing on the tables time.
This is Vokes’ story of the greatest moment of his career.
“It’s quite strange thinking back, but Chris Coleman pulled me to one side on the morning of the match to say I wouldn’t be playing. I had started the win over Northern Ireland, but he explained we were going with Hal up top because of the style of play.
“I was a bit gutted, but had time to get my head around it. As a substitute, you can kind of soak up the atmosphere a little bit more and see the fans coming into ground. It felt like a Belgium home game, but I will never forget the corner at the far end that was entirely Welsh.
“The noise they made was unbelievable and they definitely had a huge impact on our victory in the way they lifted us.
“As a forward, you normally come on when the team is behind. Given this was the quarter-final, and we were winning, I didn’t expect the manager to change it.
“But he told me to warm up and sent me on with the words ‘Just keep hold of the ball and get us at their end of the pitch’.
“It’s watching the film ‘Don’t Take Me Home’ that brings the goal back. I honestly didn’t realise it started with a free-kick deep inside our own half. Most teams would have just thumped it forward, the way we played it out was amazing.
“In the film we hear the manager telling Gunts, ‘Don’t you dare cross that ball, Chris’. To be honest, I was thinking the same thing myself! I was ready to go out to the right to join him, try to wind down the clock a bit by keeping it in the corner.
“So, I didn’t want it crossed either. Obviously I will be grateful for the rest of my career that Chris did what he thought best. I just got up and glanced into the far corner.