Without their manager, minus several of their best players, facing an uncertain future, Wales should be in crisis.
Instead, a depleted team beat Mexico, the ninth-ranked side in the world, on Saturday. Even in defeat to Belgium last week, they scored one of the best goals in their history, a 17-pass move that involved all 10 outfield players and concluded with Harry Wilson's fine finish.
Perhaps, given Belgium’s long reign as officially the planet’s best international team, Wales’ World Cup qualifying campaign was always going to start in earnest on Tuesday.
They face the Czech Republic, early group leaders after thrashing Estonia 6-2 and drawing with Belgium. It was a reminder the pool’s third seeds have the potential to upset the pecking order. Yet Wales can hope to profit from the fixture list, if the Czechs’ exertions in Prague came at a cost.
Their own timing had felt poor. Tyler Roberts, Rabbi Matondo and Hal Robson-Kanu were sent home on Monday for breaching protocols. The injured Aaron Ramsey, Ben Davies and Joe Allen head the list of absentees. Gareth Bale is likely to be the only member of the team who beat Belgium in the Euro 2016 quarter-final to start on Tuesday night. If that reflects the revolutionary effect Ryan Giggs has had, moving on from their most successful side in more than half a century with a quiet ruthlessness, there is no Giggs again.
Wales linger in limbo without him. Giggs was arrested on suspicion of assault in November and is on bail until May. He denies the allegations but if he is charged, Wales face the prospect of going to just the third major tournament of their history without their manager; it could also torpedo their chances of qualifying for a fourth.
And yet they have prospered without him. The caretaker manager Robert Page, normally Giggs’ assistant, has overseen three wins and a draw in five games. Page strangely described it as “business as usual” earlier this month when it is anything but; yet maybe that understated approach was an attempt to bring calm to a chaotic backdrop.
With the Welsh FA’s chief executive Jonathan Ford placed on gardening leave earlier this month, perhaps there is no one to make a meaningful decision when one is soon required.
And Page had to wrangle with St Pauli for the release of defender James Lawrence, who played against Belgium, returned to Hamburg to quarantine before restrictions were eased in Germany and was allowed to travel for tonight’s game. It scarcely represents the ideal preparation.
Giggs is being consulted and Wales face a decision about the composition of the attack. Wilson struck as a false nine in Belgium, the target man Kieffer Moore as a more conventional centre-forward against Mexico.
With Bale and Daniel James set to return, it feels a straight choice between Wales’ two scorers this week. Minus Allen, Luton’s Joe Morrell may start in midfield, pitting him against Tomas Soucek, who scored a hat-trick in Estonia and captained the Czechs against Belgium.
And at the helm will be the former Port Vale and Northampton manager Page. It may not sound a recipe for success but so far Wales have made the best of a bad situation.
