Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey can succeed where Ryan Giggs failed with Wales

Gareth Bale is only the second after Ian Rush to score in an European Cup final, though Giggs has scored in a penalty shootout. Matthew Horwood / Getty Images

After 23 years and 1,027 first-team games for club and country, Ryan Giggs ended an extraordinary career in May.

He almost scored with his final notable contribution, an injury-time free kick but there was no need to script a special farewell.

The most successful player in the history of English domestic football had won 13 league titles and two Champions Leagues. His place in history was secure long before Hull City goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic denied him a 169th and last Manchester United goal.

Yet, if there are no suggestions that Giggs retired unfulfilled, there is one gap in an otherwise astonishing CV.

Like many another Welsh great, from Trevor Ford after World War II to Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey now, Giggs never played in a major international tournament. He twice came close.

In 1993, Wales required victory against Romania in their final game to progress.

They had just equalised when they were awarded a spot kick. Rather than Giggs, Gary Speed, forward Dean Saunders or record scorer Ian Rush, coach Terry Yorath chose Swindon left-back Paul Bodin to take it.

Viewed from the prism of the present day, it seems a remarkable choice, though Bodin was a regular penalty taker for his club.

Unfortunately for his team Bodin drilled it against the bar. Romania went on to score a winner and beat Argentina en route to the 1994 World Cup quarter-finals.

A decade later, Giggs was the Welshman to strike the woodwork, in a Euro 2004 play-off against Russia, but the country of 150 million edged out a principality with a population of three million by a solitary goal.

Since then, they have not come close to ending an ever-lengthier wait. Qualification campaigns are supposed to last for 14 months, but Wales’s have tended to be effectively over after 360 minutes of football.

This latest one should not be and not just because Wales start against tiny Andorra on Tuesday.

They were doomed by the draw in their attempts to reach the World Cup after being pitted in a pool with two of Europe’s top 10 teams, Belgium and Croatia.

Now they are in a group with two who featured in Brazil this summer, Belgium and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A new format offers hope. For some, the decision to increase the European Championships and admit 24 teams will dilute the quality. For Wales, it offers an opportunity.

In 1976, they reached the last eight, but then the finals included only four countries. Now two qualify automatically and a third side – potentially Wales, Israel or Cyprus – goes into the play-offs.

Wales have not travelled to a tournament since the team of John and Mel Charles, Ivor Allchurch, Cliff Jones and Terry Medwin were quarter-finalists in the 1958 World Cup.

Now the expansion in the European Championships means Bale and Ramsey may not go the same way as Giggs and Rush, major talents who were never seen on the biggest stages in their country’s colours.

The winger told the Welsh FA’s website: “The fact that more teams can qualify this time around just adds to that sense of confidence. We feel we have a great team that’s now been together for a while, and we’re full of confidence.

“We’re young, but we’ve been together now for five, six or seven years. We all feel we’re at that stage where we really need to start producing. Hopefully, the time is right and we can kick on and qualify for major tournaments.”

Bale’s move to Real Madrid elevated him to another level. He became only the second Welshman, after Rush, to score in a European Cup final, though Giggs also found the net in a penalty shoot-out.

Like his compatriot, Ramsey has improved exponentially, becoming a regular scorer and potent match winner.

Wales’s size, though, dictates that their teammates are not of a similar stature.

Captain Ashley Williams and Joe Allen are proven Premier League performers but Simon Church, the probable striker, has scored twice in 26 internationals and is on the bench for Championship side Charlton Athletic.

He is no Rush, Saunders, Mark Hughes, John Hartson or Craig Bellamy, the centre-forwards in the groups Giggs garnished, but the twin talents of Bale and Ramsey have a chance their predecessors were denied.

Nine of this Wales side are not world-beaters, but their immediate job is to prove they are one of the top 24 teams in Europe.

It is very feasible. Wales’s exile from the grandest of stages could finally end.

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