The Wales team at the 2022 World Cup: Gareth Bale and others

The story about the teams in Group B at the World Cup in Qatar concludes with Wales.

Wales

It is one of the four constituent parts of Great Britain - along with England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Only for six years in the distant 11th century Wales was independent, and now, unlike the Scots and Northern Irish, it does not aspire to sovereignty. Wales is castles, industry, coal and Prince Charles of Wales, who most recently became King Charles III.

Rugby and soccer are most popular among Welsh fans. Wales has its own championship, but local representatives play in the major English leagues: for example, now in Championships you can see "Swansea" and "Cardiff".

Welsh national soccer team

This is one of the oldest teams - it played the first match against Scotland on March 25, 1876. But the Welsh managed to declare themselves only in 1950s: because of the conflict with FIFA over the salaries of amateur players all the British soccer associations were expelled for 18 years, and only in 1946 they came back.

In 1958, the Welsh team made its World Cup debut. In the group stage, it has completed all matches in a draw - with Hungary (1:1), Mexico (1:1) and the tournament host Sweden (0:0) and took second place, went to the quarterfinals, where lost to the future world champions Brazilians - 0:1. Only Pele's goal in the 66th minute decided everything. And now, 64 years later, the Welsh team will play in the World Cup for only the second time in history.

The Welsh have been on the rise in recent years. They are a solid team, practicing the trademark British soccer - except that in offense they pale in comparison to the English for lack of extra-class stars. In 2016, Wales reached the European Championship semifinals, defeating Russia (3-1), beating Slovakia (2-1) and only losing to England (1-2) after a goal in injury time. Then there were victories over Northern Ireland (1-0) and Belgium (3-1), and only in the run-up to the final they were abandoned by future champions Portugal (0-2).

In 2021, the Welsh team was also quite good at the European Championships. In the group it dealt with the Turks (2-0), drew with the Swiss (1-1) and lost to the Italians (0-1), and in the 1/8 finals the Welsh strong defense crumbled before the romantic Danes (0-4).

Wales's national team stars.

Speaking of recent times, of course, fans will remember Ryan Giggs, skillful and tough, who lost a duel to Vadim Evseev in the Euro 2004 tie. But who could forget Ian Rush, Craig Bellamy, Gary Speed?

Now the number one in the Welsh team is Gareth Bale. But he's not the only one the team's strength is. More than a hundred games in its shirt played goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and fullback Chris Gunther, Europe-wide known midfielder Aaron Ramsey.

Opponents in Group "B".

England, USA and Iran.

Forecast on the Wales national team performance

The English team's class allows them to be the main contenders for the first place, but the level of Americans and Welsh is comparable. If neither of them falters in their struggle with Iran and takes sudden points from England, the outcome of the second playoff berth will be decided in a head-to-head game between Wales and the United States. However, either side is unlikely to make it past the 1/8 finals.