Wales looks to end 58-year last-4 wait
Print Edition
THE last time Wales reached the quarterfinals of a major soccer tournament, at the 1958 World Cup, the might of Brazil and a fledgling Pele stood between it and progress.
It has taken the best part of six decades for it to return to one of international football’s major stages and, having clawed its way into the last eight of Euro 2016 where it will face Belgium or Hungary, it might fancy its chances of going one better than its heralded predecessor.
A cagey 1-0 win over a rigidly organized Northern Ireland side in Saturday’s last-16 clash in Paris teed up what many Wales fans may see as a winnable quarterfinal, with a first-ever place in the last four of a major tournament up for grabs.
With a spot in the country’s footballing record books now within touching distance, Wales boss Chris Coleman was not going to dampen fans’ hopes after Saturday’s victory.
“Get carried away and keep dreaming,” was his message to the fans at the Parc de Princes.
“Why not? We won’t look ahead but the fans can get carried away. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Many of those fans may not have been born when Wales reached the last eight of the 1958 World Cup in Sweden but there are some similarities between that side and the current one.
Both the 1958 side and Coleman’s were propelled on their way by a talismanic, internationally-renowned forward who carried the nation’s hopes on his shoulders.
While Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale is today’s star attraction, 58 years ago it was John Charles.
Charles, a center forward whose brute physicality was matched by pace and dazzling technique, was in his pomp in 1958, having left Leeds United to join Juventus for a British record fee the year before.
The ‘Gentle Giant’, as he was known, scored Wales’s only goal in its opening group game, a 1-1 draw with a Hungary team whose ‘Magical Magyars’ had reached the final four years earlier.
Sadly for Wales, Charles picked up an injury against the same side in a playoff after both teams finished level on points, ruling him out of the quarter-final against Brazil.
That match pitted Wales against a then largely unknown 17-year-old called Pele who scored his first World Cup goal, a deflected effort, to seal a 1-0 victory.
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