Brave but doomed attempt by Wales because a player who earns millions of pounds a year was unable to take a decent penalty. It might sound harsh but ultimately that's what it boiled down to in this match. However, that said we, nor Dan James, should never have been in this situation in the first place and it is my contention that we wouldn't have been had we had a 'proper' manager in place during qualifying. Some stats:
POSSESSION: 42-58 SHOTS: 12-11 OT: 4-0 PASSES: 491-665 COMPLETED: 377-571 TOUCHES IN OPPO BOX: 25-20 CORNERS: 3-6 FOULS: 18-13
Of course there were no goals scored but we came the closest and it's interesting to note that we denied Poland even one shot on target in 120 minutes of football despite the presence of Lewandowski playing up front for them. He was well shackled by our defenders all night and, for him, had minimal impact on the game.
This might account for Page playing DJ as a sort of wing back when we had a ready made back 4 on the pitch of Rodon and Mepham flanked by Williams and Davies. But fortune favours the brave and, imo, the brave thing was to play a back 4, strengthen our attacking options and go for the win. But we stuck with 5 at the back, failed to score as a result and lost the shootout as a consequence. Would a more experienced, a more tactically astute coach have gone for the win? We don't know, nor will we ever know if that plan might have succeeded had it been adopted. But I just can't shake the feeling that we've paid the price for Page's distinct lack of top level experience - and worse, it now looks as though we shall continue to pay that price until the next World Cup.