With 166 days to go until Wales begin their World Cup campaign against the USA at the Al Rayyan Stadium in Qatar, every game counts as preparation. Gareth Bale entered for the final 18 minutes as a much-changed team from the one that overcame Ukraine on Sunday were edged out by the Netherlands in a topsy-turvy finish that ended with the Burnley striker Wout Weghorst scoring a brilliant diving header in stoppage time, 100 seconds after Rhys Norrington-Davies cancelled out Teun Koopmeiners’ precise opener with a fine header himself.
This was Wales’s first home defeat since losing to Denmark in November 2018 but there is a much bigger picture now at play.
