An own goal from Andriy Yarmolenko gave Wales a 1-0 playoff win over Ukraine that sends them to their first men’s World Cup since 1958
For Wales, the only goal will live long in the memory. It stemmed from Ruslan Malinovskyi blocking off Daniel James 20-odd yards from goal, to leave Bale standing over a free-kick that was from an almost identical distance to when he opened the scoring against Austria in the semi-final.
Davies embodied Wales’s spirit. The defender, playing on the left of a back three, made a block with 15 minutes to play when Yarmolenko side-footed the ball goalwards after Ukraine scooped the ball into the the box. A minute earlier Wales could have doubled their advantage. The substitute Brennan Johnson struck a post and seconds later, after another surge by Johnson, Bale was denied by Bushchan after meeting Aaron Ramsey’s twirling cross.
Ukraine’s players displayed a flag in their dressing room that was scribbled with handwritten goodwill messages sent to them by soldiers on the front-line, a sobering reminder of their motivations. Ukraine’s players, who again sung the national anthem draped in their national flags, were applauded by the Welsh fans with a front-row seat of their final warmup shuttle runs. “Tonight, now is our time,” predicted the stadium announcer before a moving rendition of the Welsh national anthem.
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