Cardiff turns into a theatre of pain and leaves Wales facing an empty summer | Barney Ronay

27/03/2024 02:07

This was an exercise in slow-burn dread right from the start – two and a half hours of relentlessly draining Euro 2024 qualifying playoff football

Well, that's something new at least. And don't worry. It only takes about 30 years, a little bit of scar tissue, and perhaps a mournful novelty song to get over it. Poland had five shots on target all night at the Cardiff City Stadium. Unfortunately for Wales all five came in the penalty shoot out at the end of two and a half hours of relentlessly draining Euro 2024 qualifying playoff football.

In the process a first ever competitive shootout for Wales became also a first ever defeat by that most knuckle-biting of margins. It fell to Dan James to contribute the decisive miss at 5-4 down, always the worst way to lose in this self-contained theatre of pain. The kick felt wrong from the moment James lined it up. The run was too short. There is that feeling, in these moments, of a footballer suddenly cramped in their own space, the radar starting to bleep, the dials whirring, the day starting to slide the wrong way.