Wales go into Tuesday night’s crunch World Cup match against England safe in the knowledge that if they fail to win they will be coming home from Qatar after just eight days at a tournament they’ve waited 64 years to be at.
Even a win might not be enough if the result in the other Group B fixture does not go their way, but perhaps Rob Page’s squad can take some inspiration from Welsh teams of the past who have managed to put one over on the old enemy.
Then again, they might have to look some way into the past to find what they’re looking for. On the last six occasions the two sides have met, England have come out victorious. The most recent of those meetings was a friendly in Covid-ridden 2020, when goals from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Conor Coady and Danny Ings gave England a 3-0 win.
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Before that was the Euro 2016 clash in Lens. Gareth Bale put Wales 1-0 up with a free-kick from an incredible distance before an equaliser from Jamie Vardy and a stoppage-time winner from Daniel Sturridge again gave England the win.
Before that there were two plucky Welsh defeats (2-0 and 1-0) in 2011 in Euro 2012 qualifiers - one at the then called Millennium Stadium and one at Wembley - and prior to that the teams met twice in qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup. The first, held at Old Trafford, saw Frank Lampard and David Beckham give England a 2-0 win, and the second, in Cardiff, saw Joe Cole score the only goal.
That makes six wins in a row for England, but there was a time - May 1984 to be exact - when Wales could beat their bigger neighbours from across the Severn Bridge. Only 14,250 saw it, but it did happen. Held at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, it was a British Home Championship fixture, in what was the last year that the competition took place.
Mike England was the Wales manager, while Bobby Robson was in the opposite dugout. Neville Southall was in goal for Wales, who were captained by Kevin Ratcliffe. Robbie James and Mickey Thomas were in midfield, while a young strikeforce of Ian Rush and Mark Hughes - aged just 22 and 20 respectively - was sure to have made Welsh fans excited about their team’s prospects in years to come.
It was Hughes, then a promising young striker trying to establish himself in the first team at Manchester United, who grabbed the headlines as he nipped in to a score with a header from a free-kick in the 17th minute, past England goalkeeper and two-time European Cup winner Peter Shilton. Hughes had another goal disallowed, and Rush went close to adding a second as Wales ran out comfortable winners against an England side who had returned winless from the World Cup in Spain two years earlier.
Unfortunately for Wales fans, that April evening in Wrexham more than 38 years ago was the last glimpse at a victory over England. In truth, Wales have not come close to beating England ever since, with Bale’s free-kick in 2016 the solitary goal scored against them in the six meetings since Hughes scored with his header. As World Cup 2022 has already shown, however, upsets do happen in football, and perhaps Wales could pick the best time possible for a well overdue victory on Tuesday night in Doha.
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