Reasons to be cheerful: Aaron Ramsey is playing regularly again, sort of

At least Wales won’t have to face Prime Pelé (right), as they did in the 1958 finals in Stockholm. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

ONE DRAGON ON THE SHIRT, 64 YEARS OF HURT

It’s not pushing a point too hard to suggest Wales don’t have the greatest record at the World Cup. It’s 1958 – and that’s it. Having said that, they did get to the quarter-finals that year, and may well have won the whole thing had John Charles not been kicked out of the competition. Also, in the process, they scored the greatest goal in the entire history of the whole goddamn thing. Ivor Allchurch, boneddigion a boneddigesau, knocking Diego Maradona, Carlos Alberto, Maxi Rodríguez, Dennis Bergkamp, Esteban Cambiasso, Archie Gemmill, Saeed Al-Owairan, Michael Owen and Marco Tardelli into a jauntily-cocked hat.