• Quarter-finals: Friday, Wales v Belgium, 11pm
In 1958, Mel Charles helped Wales reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup. It was a historic achievement, even if his some of his compatriots remained unaware of it.
When he arrived back in his native Swansea after taking his country to a level they had never reached before or since, the ticket collector at the train station asked: “Have we been on holiday again then?”
Charles’s brother John, one of Juventus’s finest players, always tended to be described as Wales’s greatest ever footballer. Charles himself was branded the best defender in the 1958 World Cup by Pele, the man responsible for Wales’s exit. The 17-year-old player’s first World Cup goal, an overhead kick in Gothenburg, sent Charles on his route back to Swansea station.
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Fifty-eight years later, Wales have finally returned to a major tournament. Once again, they have reached the last eight. Once again, they are underdogs, facing a team who seem on the brink of a breakthrough, even if it is hard to tip Belgium to emulate Brazil, who won three World Cups in a 12-year period.
There are other marked differences. The modern-day Swansea City stopper in the Welsh defence, Ashley Williams, is unlikely to return home on the train. The Welsh public were unaware of their team’s exploits then. Not now. Football fever has engulfed the principality.
And, unlike in 1958 when an injured John Charles missed the Brazil game, Gareth Bale is fit and firing. Uefa ranked him the fourth-best player in the tournament after the last-16 games.
Two of the three men ahead of him, however, are Belgians, Kevin de Bruyne and Eden Hazard. It is a sign of their ominous surge to form. Since their opening defeat to Italy, Marc Wilmots’s team have won three games, conceding no goals and scoring eight. Their 4-0 thrashing of Hungary was the tournament’s biggest win.
If Wales need a favourable omen, they can find one in the recent past. They held off the team ranked second in the world in qualifying, keeping clean sheets home and way. They drew 0-0 in Brussels and winning 1-0 in Cardiff.
Inevitably, Bale was the scorer.
“We’re like their bogey team,” he said with the cheekiness that has characterised his rhetoric in this tournament.
Wales are enjoying a rare chance to fan flames, to gloat and taunt. Their players were pictured celebrating England’s exit. Overshadowed by overbearing neighbours for so long, they are the best of British for the first time: even in 1958, Northern Ireland were also quarter-finalists.
Now they could become Britain’s first semi-finalists since 1996, even if they lack their opponents’ strength in depth. Belgium have eight of the top 57 players in Uefa’s standings which, while they can be questioned, are an interesting exercise nonetheless. Wales have only Bale and Aaron Ramsey.
Yet Chris Coleman’s side possess an enviable unity. Their motto, “Together Stronger”, is also the title of their tournament anthem, performed by the Welsh rock band the Manic Street Preachers.
Two decades ago, they were customising the lyrics of their hit single “Everything Must Go” to refer to Wales’ unpopular manager and singing “Bobby Gould Must Go”.
Times have changed. Wales, officially the 117th best team in international football in 2011, could be one of Europe’s top four by the end of Friday night. There is an awareness that such opportunities may not present themselves again.
Ashley Williams needed his collarbone put back in place after a shuddering collision with teammate Jonny Williams against Northern Ireland, but he refused to come off. It is hard to imagine the captain missing this one.
It leaves Coleman with a single selection dilemma – which of Jonny Williams, Sam Vokes and Hal Robson-Kanu he fields alongside Bale and Ramsey in the attacking trident. Whoever gets the nod, Wales aim to carry on surfing as far as their momentum carries them. “We want to keep riding this wave,” Bale said.
They do not want to wave goodbye just yet.
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