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Written by Martin Graham | 7 June 2022
Wales booked tickets to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar after beating Ukraine 1-0. The Welshman has a Gareth Bale free kick and a string of thank-you saves from Wayne Hennessy. This win dashed Ukraine’s hopes of winning their first World Cup since 2006.
Rob Page’s team will now battle fellow Britons England, the United States and Iran in Group B of the World Cup after going through a difficult qualification process.
Gareth Bale’s free kick hit Ukraine striker Andriy Yarmolenko to score the only goal of the match. Yarmolenko’s deflection proved formidable as no other goal was scored in the match.
Although Ukraine controlled the ball throughout the match, they lacked the finishing touch to consolidate their dominance. Ukraine will be upset by a controversial decision call, which was rejected by the video assistant referee, as not strong enough.
Wales thanks to the success of Hennessy
Burnley’s Wayne Hennessy was at his best, making a number of crucial saves, especially a superb save at the dying embers of the match. West Ham’s Andriy Yarmolenko almost put his side’s level clean when he was clean in goal, but Joe Allen was on hand to block it as the referee deemed the offense legal, and the Ukrainians could only complain.
The decision to sanction a number of reactions, most notably Dean Saunders, who stated that it was a clear punishment. “For me this is a penalty,” he said. “We got away with one there, Ukraine is definitely hitting us across the midfield.” Added in a candid comment.
The Ukrainians, who played even with the current attacks on their homeland by the Russians, had their best chance very late in the game when Artem Duvbek’s superb header was saved by Wayne Hennessy, despair in the eyes of the Ukrainians who thought they had regained parity. .
Tottenham defender Ben Davies followed up the rebound with a superb shot to add to the misery of the Ukrainians.
The Welsh victory was truly remarkable given that the nation had not participated in a World Cup since the 1958 edition, where young Pele exited. This is 15 World Cups without a single appearance for the Welshman.
However, in recent times they have become a growing force to reckon with. They have reached the knockout stages of the last two editions of the European Championship. They faced the British sister nation at Euro 2016 and faced each other again in November in Qatar.
