{"id":507121,"date":"2026-04-01T13:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/507121\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:11:19","slug":"welcome-to-the-ridiculous-international-football-match-nobody-wanted-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/507121\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the \u2018ridiculous\u2019 international football match nobody wanted to play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tommie Collins, a Wales supporter, was struggling to disguise his deflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously if we were going to play Italy, it was going to be a massive occasion,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we\u2019re playing in a dead rubber and people have been asking if they can have their money back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was not alone. Wales and Northern Ireland were hoping to stage World Cup qualification parties on Tuesday; instead, they had to throw a wake. After losing their playoff semi-finals to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy respectively on Thursday, FIFA\u2019s schedulers decreed they had to play each other in a match that suited nobody in Cardiff, and finished 1-1.<\/p>\n

The same applied for all the countries that lost in those semi-finals, with the Republic of Ireland playing North Macedonia, Slovakia facing Romania and Ukraine hosting Albania. They were all dressed up as \u2018international challenge\u2019 matches; in reality, they were the most lifeless of dead rubbers.<\/p>\n

There was a logistical reason for it \u2014 essentially, to fulfil FIFA\u2019s new international match calendar, which means every country must play twice in March across an eight-day period \u2014 but it still seemed cruel.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is a bit flat and deflated,\u201d said another Wales fan, Gwenllian Evans. \u201cFans are still feeling the heartbreak from Thursday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Dublin, Ireland\u2019s game ended 0-0, but fans were at least trying to put a brave face on things. \u201cIt was always going to be a difficult game for us and our fans,\u201d striker Troy Parrott told RTE after the match. \u201cTo see so many of them cheering us on in a friendly on a Tuesday night really warms my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Wales fans do their best to get up for their dead rubber against Northern Ireland (Michael Steele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It was hard to shake the feeling of what might have been in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Yes, they would have been underdogs against Gennaro Gattuso\u2019s Italy, but they would still have had a rousing rendition of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau and Dafydd Iwan\u2019s iconic Yma o Hyd<\/a> to stir the soul. Who knows where that feverish atmosphere could have taken them? After all, Bosnia showed what was possible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Northern Ireland game felt listless, and there was a peculiar atmosphere around the Cardiff City Stadium, with plenty of empty seats. In one corner of the ground, around 300 Northern Ireland fans made the journey, some of whom braved the cold and went topless when their side opened the scoring through Jamie Donley.<\/p>\n

For most onlookers, having to play is bewildering. \u201cIt is one of the most ridiculous things I\u2019ve ever heard, it\u2019s pointless,\u201d former Northern Ireland international Chris Brunt told BBC Sportsound<\/a> before the match.<\/p>\n

Gruff John, 35, had travelled down from Y Felinheli, North Wales, with his family on Thursday to attend the two matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously gutted,\u201d he said. \u201cMy son, who is 13, he\u2019s gutted as well. More so because we have to watch a dead rubber, and the heartbreak of not going to the World Cup. Wales probably don\u2019t want to play it, Northern Ireland don\u2019t want to play it. It\u2019s not what we wanted to go and watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Wales fans, Thursday night\u2019s penalty shootout loss<\/a> had prompted a dismally familiar sense of deja vu. Two years ago, Wales lost in a shootout, to Poland, which meant they missed out on Euro 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just feels like quite a big hit for Wales because we\u2019ve had two playoffs now for major tournaments and we\u2019ve lost both on penalties,\u201d said Evans, 24, who lives in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a bit of nervousness about everybody,\u201d added Collins, a 62-year-old postman. \u201cBecause of the Poland game and that, it was like, \u2018Oh, are we going to lose again?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Collins, from Porthmadog, North Wales, has attended 121 away matches with Wales and only missed eight home games in 40 years. He decided to swerve the Northern Ireland match.<\/p>\n

Wales\u2019 failure to add to their previous two appearances at a World Cup, in 1958 and 2022, makes some fans wonder when they will return.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a general feeling that the Bale generation, the Euro 2016 generation, is truly over,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThere\u2019s no one to get Wales out of a tight spot in the way that he could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the ground on Tuesday night, Wales fans are still generally supportive of head coach Craig Bellamy, who has brought a change in style from predecessor Robert Page\u2019s pragmatism, although his substitutions were questioned on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The general consensus is Wales lack strength in depth and keenly felt the absences of Ben Davies and Kieffer Moore through injury against Bosnia.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland, for their part, were always facing an uphill battle against Italy in their playoff semi-final, and so it proved, losing 2-0 in Bergamo. They are still chasing their fourth appearance at a World Cup, having last qualified in 1986.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Northern Ireland fans were determined to enjoy themselves in Cardiff (Michael Steele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Before the Wales friendly, the IFA offered their supporters a one-off refund \u201cin recognition of your continued support\u201d, which helped soften the blow of that defeat.<\/p>\n

Their fans were glad they put up a fight against Italy \u2014 they were goalless at half-time, only to concede twice under sustained pressure in the second period. \u201cWe\u2019re all very proud of our team because we recognise that we have a very young team that\u2019s still learning,\u201d Northern Ireland fans spokesperson Gary McAllister said.<\/p>\n

Many fans did not have sufficient time to plot their route to Cardiff, even if they did wish to attend, which contributed to the subdued atmosphere. The biggest talking point came before the game: it concerned Northern Ireland manager Michael O\u2019Neill, who was hired as Blackburn Rovers\u2019 head coach in February, on a short-term deal until the end of the season.<\/p>\n

With Blackburn mired in a relegation battle, the EFL confirmed to The Athletic<\/a> they had been contacted by at least one club over a possible conflict of interest. A number of players in O\u2019Neill\u2019s squad play for clubs competing with Blackburn to stay in the Championship.<\/p>\n

That includes four players at Oxford United, who are 23rd in the division. Two Oxford players, Ciaron Brown and Donley, started against Wales, as did Portsmouth\u2019s Terry Devlin and West Bromwich Albion\u2019s Isaac Price.<\/p>\n

It fuelled mutterings of conspiracy among fans on social media, but O\u2019Neill vehemently denied any such thing to reporters after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing, given that I\u2019ve managed over 100 international games, and I\u2019ve always put the players first,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cIf you look at the players in question, Isaac played 45 minutes tonight. Ciaron played 60. Jamie played 60. Jamie McDonnell didn\u2019t play, Terry played a little bit more, but he didn\u2019t finish both games. I\u2019ll always try to protect players. I don\u2019t want the players coming here and it affecting their club situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In truth, no player in Cardiff \u2014 for either side \u2014 was showing huge urgency. Wales, in particular, struggled to find any fluency. As Bellamy put it with typical bluntness in his\u00a0post-match press conference: \u201cWe were s*** first half.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Craig Bellamy (centre) was not impressed by Wales\u2019 first-half performance (Michael Steele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

There was, however, an improvement in the second half, following Sorba Thomas\u2019 goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the ones (fans) who were there were top and there were more of them than I expected,\u201d Bellamy added. \u201cI know we don\u2019t like disappointments, we don\u2019t handle it. I am Welsh, I know what it does. It\u2019s a just shame it wasn\u2019t a final.\u201d<\/p>\n

For both countries, attention now turns to the Nations League, which starts in September. Beyond that, and far more importantly, there\u2019s Euro 2028, co-hosted by England, Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n

As a host nation, Wales do not automatically qualify, but they will expect to, especially as UEFA have reserved two spots for the best-ranked host nations that don\u2019t qualify in the group stage.<\/p>\n

For now, however, there is just one silver lining, given the crippling expense this summer\u2019s competition is likely to incur for fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Wales fans are saying, \u2018Well, at least we\u2019re going to save five or six grand\u2019,\u201d jokes Collins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tommie Collins, a Wales supporter, was struggling to disguise his deflation. \u201cObviously if we were going to play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[177767,49,111456,50,1647,221,1671,51,47,52,48,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-507121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-international-football","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories","19":"tag-wales"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}