Sometimes it really is better to travel than to arrive. After a thoroughly enjoyable journey to their first major tournament, Wales collided with the 2017 European champions and were left dizzy and disorientated. During the course of an instructive 90 minutes in the shadow of Lucerne’s Mount Pilatus, Vivianne Miedema scored her 100th international goal. Perhaps even more significantly Andries Jonker’s side did enough to suggest it would be thoroughly unwise to assume England and France are destined to fill Group D’s top two places.
After conceding three soft goals and regularly being saved by either the woodwork or their quietly impressive goalkeeper, Olivia Clark, Wales will almost certainly be watching the knockout phase on television. No matter; Rhian Wilkinson’s players should eventually come to look back on this chastening evening in central Switzerland with real pride at their part in a landmark piece of national football history.
