UPDATED “ WALES LOSE TO POLAND IN PLAY-OFF FINAL “

WALES WILL NOT GO TO EURO 2024 AFTER POLAND BEAT THEM 5-4 ON PENALTIES AFTER A 0-0 DRAW

DAN JAMES MISSED THE DECISIVE PENALTY




FULL TIME:

WALES 0-0 POLAND (AFTER EXTRA TIME) - POLAND WIN 5-4 ON PENALTIES




WALES STARTING 11

Danny Ward
Connor Roberts
Joe Rodon
Chris Mepham
Ben Davies
Neco Williams
Ethan Ampadu
Jordan James
Harry Wilson
Brennan Johnson
Kieffer Moore

WALES SUBSTITUTES

Wayne Hennessey
Tom King
Morgan Fox
Jay Dasilva
Aaron Ramsey
Josh Sheehan
Charlie Savage
Rabbi Matondo
Dan James
David Brooks
Liam Cullen
Nathan Broadhead






Wales will host Poland at 7.45pm on Tuesday night in the play-off final at CCS.

The winner will qualify for this summer’s Euro 2024 tournament in Germany.

The match is live on S4C and ViaPlay Sports.

WALES SQUAD

Goalkeepers

Wayne Hennessey (Nottingham Forest)
Danny Ward (Leicester City)
Tom King (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
Adam Davies (Sheffield United)

Defenders

Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur)
Joe Rodon (Leeds United)
Chris Mepham (Bournemouth)
Morgan Fox (QPR)
Neco Williams (Nottingham Forest)
Jay DaSilva (Coventry City)
Connor Roberts (Leeds United)
Wes Burns (Ipswich Town)

Midfielders

Ethan Ampadu (Leeds United)
Josh Sheehan (Bolton Wanderers)
Dylan Levitt (Hibernian)
Jordan James (Birmingham City)
Charlie Savage (Reading)
Aaron Ramsey (Cardiff City)

Forwards

Harry Wilson (Fulham)
Nathan Broadhead (Ipswich Town)
Rabbi Matondo (Rangers)
David Brooks (Southampton)
Daniel James (Leeds United)
Liam Cullen (Swansea City)
Rubin Colwill (Cardiff City)
Brennan Johnson (Tottenham Hotspur)
Kieffer Moore (Ipswich Town)

Rob Page is preparing for a night in Cardiff that could make or break his time as Wales manager.

Beat Poland on Tuesday and Page will achieve something no Wales boss has delivered — qualification for consecutive major tournaments. Though Page led the team at Euro 2020, Ryan Giggs was in charge throughout the qualifying campaign.

Lose, and suddenly Page’s future is up for debate again. Because when you strip away the Red Wall romance and renditions of Yma o Hyd, the plain fact is that Wales would have failed to qualify for Euro 2024 despite all the cards falling in their favour.

Despite trailing in third behind Turkey and Croatia in their group, Wales’ Nations League performance gave them a shot at the play-offs — where they promptly landed two home ties. With Finland despatched, Wales take on a Polish side who are superior to the Finns but still beatable.

Though Wojciech Szczesny, Piotr Zielinski and Robert Lewandowski are better than anything Wales have to offer, the rest of the XI is unspectacular and in Cardiff, Wales should beat them.

Poland do not travel well, and their 1-0 win at the Cardiff City Stadium in September 2022 was one of only two away from home since October 2020. The other was against the Faroe Islands.

It may sound harsh, but defeat would represent failure for Page. Page’s relationship with Welsh FA chief executive Noel Mooney has been strained ever since Mooney hinted last autumn that he could make a change if Wales missed out on Euro 2024.

Page is well liked by the players but the 49-year-old — who has two years to run on his contract — has also had the rub of the green at crucial moments. He inherited the side in the post-Giggs era and they were extremely lucky to squeeze past Ukraine in the play-off for Qatar 2022 — and were awful at the finals. Then a third-place finish was rewarded with two home play-offs and if Wales do reach Germany, they will fancy their chances of making the last 16.

The winners on Tuesday will go into Group D, alongside France, the Netherlands and Austria. Victory over Austria might be enough to take Wales into the knockout stages as one of the best third-placed teams.

Wales supporters will have been pleased to hear Page so bullish. ‘We are in a healthy position because we’ve got everybody playing regularly for their clubs,’ said Page. ‘The gap in the World Cup play-offs in 2022 [between the Austria semi-final in March and Ukraine final in June] suited us because we had senior players who weren’t playing club football, in Aaron [Ramsey], in Gareth [Bale]. That gap helped us. If it had been four or five days later, we might have struggled a bit.

‘Now we’re in a different position because we’ve got a younger squad, a fitter squad, we’ve got players who are playing regularly. Poland will be a tough game and we respect what they’re all about.

Come on Wales:

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The only time I have been in the Millennium Stadium and the only time I took my son to an international was against Poland. Giggs played and we lost 0-1.

Harry Wilson says Wales will need a collective effort to fill the void left by Gareth Bale.

Wales face Poland in a Euro 2024 play-off final on Tuesday, the culmination of their first qualifying campaign since Bale, their all-time leading goalscorer and former captain, retired.

Manager Robert Page has referenced Wilson as a player who has taken on more responsibility in Bale's absence.

"I don't think anyone was going to replace Gaz [Bale]," said Wilson.

"We knew when he left as a team we had to step up because he was leaving such a hole in that team.

"He was our captain, our leader, our best player. To lose his goals and his influence on the team, there was going to be a big gap there.

"It's not just me, a lot of players are playing really well at the moment. We're all coming together."

Harry Wilson:

"We need to make sure we stop him."

Harry Wilson says Wales must stop Poland's talisman Robert Lewandowski on Tuesday night

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Polands Villa based player Matty Cash is out injured but they welcome back Juventus striker Milik back after he missed Estonia game: Milik only has 3 goals in 26 appearances for Juve this season.

Wales are braced for a huge match on Tuesday when they take on Poland in Cardiff for a place at Euro 2024.

Both sides endured troublesome regular qualifying campaigns but found form in their play-off semi-finals to set up this showdown, Wales beating Finland 4-1 and Poland thrashing Estonia 5-1.

Wales, in their most successful era, are aiming to qualify for a third successive European Championship.

"It would be a great achievement for us to qualify," said Wales boss Rob Page.

"Whenever you go through a campaign, you're always going to get bumps in the road, especially in transition, and we had one in the summer.

"What pleases me is the reaction we had since then. To go unbeaten in seven and to play in the manner we've done. It really, really pleases me.

"I'd be an extremely proud man if we get the job done."

Wales were absent from major tournaments for 58 years following the 1958 World Cup but, since ending that drought with a mesmerising run to the semi-finals at Euro 2016, qualification has become the expectation rather than a mere pipedream.

It is with good reason when it comes European Championships, where the expanded 24-team format and Nations League-assisted play-offs mean that, if Wales win on Tuesday, more teams will have qualified from their original five-team qualifying group than will have failed to.

Securing qualification would still represent a notable turnaround for Wales, who looked to be down and out following back-to-back defeats against Armenia and Turkey last summer.

The home loss to Armenia was particularly damaging, an embarrassment in truth, and put Page under severe pressure.

Although Wales recovered with a stirring victory over Croatia last October, they still missed out on automatic qualification after a disappointing draw in Armenia.

Luckily for them, they had the back-up route of the play-offs thanks to their Nations League performance in recent years.

The same was true of Poland. Despite reaching the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup, the Poles endured a dismal campaign by their standard.

They suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in their history when they lost in Moldova, and a further loss to Albania led to manager Fernando Santos' sacking.

Having limped to third place in their group, however, like Wales, Poland had the safety net of the play-offs.

On paper, Poland have the stronger squad, exemplified by their captain, Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski who is regarded as one of the world's best finishers of the past decade or more.

They also have several other Champions League-level players - Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior and Napoli midfielder Piotr Zielinski among them.

But Wales will hope to summon something extra thanks to the fact they are playing at their beloved home of Cardiff City Stadium, where they have lost only one of their past 15 Euro qualifiers.

"It's an incredible record and our supporters are massive," said Page.

"They took the roof off with the anthem the other day. Bring it on again Tuesday. Let's use that to our benefit to get across the line."

Team news -

As was the case for the victory over Finland, Page's toughest selection dilemma will be in attack, where the competition for places is fierce.

He sprung something of a surprise by starting Southampton's David Brooks against the Finns and leaving in-form Ipswich Town striker Kieffer Moore, his only recognised natural centre-forward, on the bench - but was instantly vindicated by the former's goal in the third minute.

Leeds United's Daniel James made a big impact as a substitute and scored Wales' fourth but, while he is pushing hard for a recall, Fulham's Harry Wilson and Tottenham's Brennan Johnson impressed from the start.

Regular captain Aaron Ramsey is expected to be on the bench once more having only made one brief substitute appearance for Cardiff City since a calf strain, so Spurs defender Ben Davies is set to wear the armband again.

Ipswich winger Wes Burns and Swansea City centre-back Ben Cabango withdrew from the squad with hamstring and calf issues respectively before the Finland game.

Niall Huggins, Joe Morrell and Tom Bradshaw were already missing with injury, while Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer is not included as he continues his recovery from the cardiac arrest he suffered during a Premier League match in December.

Lewandowski will captain Poland, who could be without Aston Villa right-back Matty Cash, who went off injured during Thursday's semi-final win over Estonia.

Will be interesting to see what Page does.

Brooks did well the other night so may stick with him up front ahead of Moore.

Will be interesting to see what Page does.

Brooks did well the other night so may stick with him up front ahead of Moore.

Brooks out, Moore in.

WALES STARTING 11

Danny Ward
Connor Roberts
Joe Rodon
Chris Mepham
Ben Davies
Neco Williams
Ethan Ampadu
Jordan James
Harry Wilson
Brennan Johnson
Kieffer Moore

WALES SUBSTITUTES

Wayne Hennessey
Tom King
Morgan Fox
Jay Dasilva
Aaron Ramsey
Josh Sheehan
Charlie Savage
Rabbi Matondo
Dan James
David Brooks
Liam Cullen
Nathan Broadhead

Showing too much respect at the moment. Page should have stuck with Brooks

Poland look awful defensively.

We just need to get that final pass right.

Ben Davies has a goal disallowed just before half time.

Looked very tight.

Just shaded that first half. Take it to them in the second half and we’ll win this

Iceland lead 1-0 at Ukraine in the other final.

Georgia qualified earlier, by beating Greece on penalties.

Sczeszny makes an unbelievable save to deny Moore

Finally there’s a ref who gives a foul when players bring Moore down

Poor challenge by Jordan James and he’s booked

James on for Johnson

Ten minutes to go. At the point a goal for either team wins it

Brooks on for Roberts

FT 0-0

Into extra time we go.

This stinks of a late Lewandowski winner

This stinks of a late Lewandowski winner

Exactly what I was thinking.

Mepham booked

This stinks of a late Lewandowski winner

Exactly what I was thinking.

Very little if anything between the teams.

Sadly they have the guy that would produce that one moment.