sign of the chimes
Active member
While I think they've probably underperformed over the past week and a bit - they'd overperformed by qualifying.Wales really are a poor side. Too many players past their best. Bale especially has been a passenger.
Feel sorry for Ampadu. One of their better players. Been moved around the side, making up for the deficiencies of others. Now playing at right back!
They did really well to get in to a play-off from a group that contained Belgium and the Czech Republic, but were lucky that the other two teams in their group (Belarus and Estonia) were absolute dross, though think they still dropped points to Estonia.
To get past Austria and Ukraine in the play-offs was really impressive given the lack of depth they've got in their squad.
I also think they landed in one of the tougher groups - whatever opinions on England are they're generally a good bet to go further.
The US are limited because their national sides since 1990 have tended to reflect the personality of an Excel spreadsheet and a project management course (they usually include one player with either a haircut or style that is intended to overcome this), but have a decent squad to draw from; and Iran are one of the stronger Asian nations who have a bit more experience.