The CCS saw yet another instalment of the Wales–Belgium footballing tussle, who met each other for the 11th time since 2012 on Monday 13th October. The game itself had everything riding on it from a Welsh perspective, with it being billed as make or break in regard to being able to qualify automatically for the World Cup by winning the qualification group. Despite Cymru taking an early lead, Belgium broke Welsh hearts thanks to inspired performances from current and ex Manchester City players, respectively, Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne as Belgium emerged victorious in Cardiff.
Joe Rodon headed home from a corner on the 7-minute mark to put Craig Bellamy’s men 1–0 up; but that lead was to be lost just ten minutes later, as Kevin De Bruyne slotted home a penalty following a controversial decision from VAR accusing Ethan Ampadu of a handball offence. Following the equaliser, Belgium began to dominate and really put the Welsh defence under the cosh. Belgium were justly rewarded after some great play from Doku set up Thomas Meunier, who smashed into the roof of Karl Darlow’s net to give the Red Devils the lead in the 24th minute.
After going into the halftime interval with Belgium still leading 2–1, Cymru fans were expecting a spirited second half performance, but unfortunately saw quite the opposite. Bellamy’s side looked devoid of any creativity or attacking threat whilst simultaneously being ran-ragged by Belgium’s Champions League-level wingers, Trossard and Doku. Around the 75-minute mark, Belgium were awarded yet another penalty for a handball against Leicester City midfielder Jordan James.
However, this time there was no controversy as replays showed an obvious handling of the ball by James who strangely lunged his elbow towards the ball, this following a defensive mix-up from Cymru. Kevin De Bruyne stepped up again and cooly converted once more, this time to the bottom right corner having placed in bottom left earlier in the game. After finally making some substitutions, Wrexham duo Kieffer Moore and Nathan Broadhead were both brought on and linked up well in the 89th minute to give Wales some hope as Broadhead fired in to make it 3–2.
Cymru’s hope of possibly being able to salvage a draw was depleted to merely a brief, fleeting moment as just seconds after the restart following Broadhead’s late consolation; Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard hammered home the final nail in the Cymru coffin which emptied the CCS as fans realised that any hope of automatic qualifaction had been lost. The final score saw Wales lose 4–2 to Belgium. The loss leaves Craig Bellamy’s men in a precarious position going into the last two fixtures of the qualifying campaign which will take place during the November international break.
An away fixture to Liechtenstein, who are yet to gain a point, seems to be a must-win, but is actually the least important of the two as Wales’ last fixture is at home to North Macedonia who currently sit above Wales in the table. Due to same points tallies being decided on head-to-head, after drawing in Skopje in March, a Welsh win guarantees a finish above North Macedonia. Cymru’s destiny is in our own hands; a second placed finish gives us a playoff spot in which we will likely just have to win two home games to qualify for the World Cup, but for now all eyes are on November.