Wales edge Ukraine to end 64-year World Cup wait

15 comments
  1. Can’t believe it, never thought I’d see this in a lifetime.

    Awesome game, super tense.

    Hate to knock out Ukraine, but WC baby!!

  2. As a Canadian I thought we had clear sailing through to hoisting the Cup. Now we actually have some worthy competition..

  3. Wales seem to only qualify for the World Cup when international politics is involved.

    In 1958, it looked like Israel (who were then part of the Asian Football Confederation) would qualify for the World Cup without playing a match, as several Muslim countries chose to forfeit rather than play them. FIFA hastily arranged a playoff between Israel and a randomly selected team from those who had finished second in their group- at the time, only group winners qualified.

    Wales were chosen, and beat Israel 4-0 on aggregate over two legs.

    It can be argued that the playoff possibly saved the life of Wales manager Jimmy Murphy- he was also Matt Busby’s assistant at Manchester United. If he hadn’t been busy managing Wales in the home leg he would have travelled to Belgrade with United, and been on their plane when it crashed in Munich.

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