England v Germany? World Cup qualifier play-offs? Zlatan v Cristiano?
No, the eyes of anyone with an ounce of sense this evening were on the Algarve Stadium in Portugal as Gibraltar played its first ever official international football match – coming away with a goalless draw against Slovakia, which, in context, was pretty sensational.
Gibraltar’s old ground, the Victoria Stadium. Picture: Flickr, Malcolm Tredinnick
Earlier this year the British Overseas Territory, famous for its Rock, for its monkeys and for the fact it intensely annoys Spaniards, was admitted to UEFA.
There have been fears for the ability of the scoreboard to cope when Gibraltar lines up in the qualifiers for Euro 2016, with potential match-ups against Germany or the Netherlands (a potentially epic fixture against Spain will be purposely avoided by UEFA) predicted to be just a little bit tricky for the team representing a population of just 30,000, slightly less than each of traditional whipping boys San Marino and Liechtenstein.
In many ways it would make sense for those and other minnows to hold a separate competition, pre-qualifiers to avoid the kind of mismatches which saw San Marino finish the most recent qualifiers having conceded 54 goals (scoring one) in their 10 games.
On the other hand, we’d all be the poorer if we missed out on gems like this, featuring Martin Tyler’s “humiliation here” commentary:
Anyway, Gibraltar held its own tonight against a Slovakia team – admittedly weakened – ranked 65th in the world: hardly one of world football’s great sides, but they did qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, beating defending champions Italy 3-2 in the process as they unexpectedly reached the weirdly-named Round of 16.
The game at the Algarve Stadium, where Gibraltar are playing while their new ground is built ahead of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, was goalless, something the 500 fans who had made the trek across the Iberian peninsula would surely have taken prior to kick off. A 91st-minute Slovakian header which struck the crossbar would have been a cruel blow, especially for keeper Jordan Perez, who had an excellent game.
“It feels like a victory!” exclaimed the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation commentators at the final whistle. It did.
Full Time: Gibraltar 0-0 Slovakia commendable result for Allen Bula's men. Will go back to Gib proud.
Deluded? Perhaps. But if they approach games differently to San Marino, Andorra and the like – whose sole ambition often appears to be to hack their opponents off the field – that would be a positive move.
Tonight’s goalless draw was a good start for football’s newest nation.
**The first version of the post stated erroneously Bula wanted Gibraltar to be 43rd in the world as opposed to among the 54 UEFA nations. Thanks to Sam Barnard for pointing out the mistake.
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P.S.:
It's a record: Gibraltar the only unbeaten team in world football history … first-ever game ends 0-0 vs Slovakia
Four quite different tries, and the variety was good to see. Mike Phillips’ was an opportunist’s score finished well from 75 metres (although there was no way he was ever going to pass), George North’s was astraight off the training ground, Toby Faletau rounded off a great move and Ken Owens rumbled over for a try which could be accredited to all the forwards.
It wasn’t just North: debutant Cory Allen and Scott Williams meant the Roberts-Davies combo was not missed yesterday while relative newby Liam Williams was threatening on his wing. Dan Biggar also ensured there was more control at stand-off than there had been last week. It was also nice to see the ball being chucked around a bit – and it would be even nicer to see attempts at similar flair against the top Southern Hemisphere teams.
With Cory Allen out for the rest of the autumn, it’s approaching crisis point at centre…
The ref was good
From my vantage point at least, John Lacey had a decent game – not as pedantic as many referees, not as desperate to be the centre of attention as others (including Alain Rolland last week and yesterday’s touch judge Steve Walsh).
But two downers on the day
The Millennium Stadium is a great venue, but the pitch is as bad as it’s ever been, and almost certainly dangerous.
The Millennium Stadium pitch being tended on Wednesday, November 13
There were also a number of attempts – ultimately and fortunately unsuccessful – at starting a Mexican Wave. Anyone who’s been to a sports game with me will know I loathe Mexican Waves. Then again, if that’s the symptom of a comfortable Welsh victory, so be it…
Leaving the Millennium Stadium after Wales’ 24-15 defeat to South Africa yesterday, my first thoughts were annoyance, yet again, at our inability to defeat Southern Hemisphere opposition.
I thought the performance itself wasn’t up to scratch, and moaned about what is an apparent mental block when faced with one of Australia, South Africa or New Zealand.
The facts speak for themselves: since the 2005 Six Nations (and the revival in Welsh rugby fortunes), Wales have lost eight out of eight against the All Blacks (best result 12-19 in 2009), nine out of nine against the Springboks (best result 16-17 in the 2011 World Cup) and 11 out of 14 against the Wallabies (including one draw).
Another shocking stat is that Wales have not won one game in November since 2009, with those four years including defeats to Samoa and Argentina as well as a draw with Fiji. And we might be better than England and France, but they have always been much more likely (and often successful) in beating the old Tri Nations teams.
“…to be dismayed not to have beaten the second best team in the world reflects an unusual state of mind for Wales…”
And having had a bit of time to reflect on the defeat, I’m not in quite as much despair as I was yesterday. For a start, Wales dominated long periods of the game. Yes, it was a lot of huffing and puffing for minimal reward, but in the 12 minutes or so when the World’s Best Centre, Jonathan Davies, was on the field, we did create opportunities. Losing someone of his calibre early on would hurt most teams, not to mention the subsequent injury which forced Adam Jones off.
A huge difference was that South Africa took the chances (or half chances) which presented themselves, and kicked far less aimlessly than their hosts. I don’t want to blame Alain Rolland for the defeat, but, as well as a few bonkers decisions, if he had spotted an obvious offside during the Springboks’ third, decisive try, the game could have turned out very differently.
Even so, Wales never really looked like winning, and we were hardly “robbed”. What this defeat does mean, though, is that we have to beat Argentina, Tonga and Australia – or this autumn will have been another missed opportunity.
An Early Bath 