This World Cup play-off final was arguably the biggest game in Wales’ history. The chance to qualify for the tournament in Qatar would end a drought that had lasted since 1958.
Both teams arrived at the game lacking match rhythm.
Most of the Welsh players had not seen much first-team football this season. Gareth Bale played only 290 minutes of football for Real Madrid, Aaron Ramsey started three league games for Rangers, Wayne Hennessey racked up a total of seven league matches since the end of 2018 and Joe Rodon was the fifth or sixth choice centre-back at Tottenham Hotspur.
As for Ukraine, half the team have not played competitive club football since before February for obvious reasons.
Ukraine’s last World Cup appearance was in 2006 when they reached the quarter-final stages. Their 3-1 victory in the play-off semi-finals against Scotland last week was impressive, with Manchester City left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, deployed in midfield for his country, being a key cog in the Ukrainian engine. The side were desperate to give their nation something to cheer about, a sense of hope, after the unfortunate events of recent months.
Bale’s free-kick, deflecting off captain Andriy Yarmolenko into his own net, proved to be the difference on the night in Cardiff and secured a place in the tournament for Wales.
Despite Ukraine’s dominance, Hennessey came up with some heroic goalkeeping to keep his team in front.
This tactical analysis will look at the huge game between Wales and Ukraine at the weekend. The analysis will break down some of the key tactics on display during Sunday’s historic result.
Lineups
For Wales, Rob Page had key decisions to make. He opted to start with striker Kieffer Moore and change the team’s usual shape from 5-3-2 to 5-2-3. Wayne Hennessey was selected in goal ahead of Danny Ward.
Wales XI: W. Hennessey; C. Roberts, E. Ampadu, J. Rodon, B. Davies, N. Williams; J. Allen, A. Ramsey; G. Bale (C), D. James; K. Moore.
Ukraine were unchanged from the side that beat Scotland in the semi-finals playing in a 4-3-3. Everton’s Mykolenko retained his sport at left-back while Zinchenko played in the middle of the park. Yarmolenko, looking for a new club in the summer, was the team’s main goal threat.
Ukraine XI: G. Bushchan; O. Karavaev, I. Zabarnyi, M. Matvienko, V. Mykolenko; T. Stepanenko, R. Malinovskiy, O. Zinchenko; A. Yarmolenko (C), V. Tsygankov, R. Yaremchuk.
Shapes and gameplans
Ukraine established the ascendency in the early stages and enjoyed the lions share of possession. They lined up in a very fluid 4-3-3. Wales were happy to stay in their shape and their tactic depended on frustrating the opposition and hitting them on the counter-attack. When Ukraine pinned the hosts deep in their half, Bale would stay narrow to block the passing lane from the central defenders into Zinchenko.
The latter would regularly occupy a false left-back position to get hold of the ball, enabling Mykolenko to push higher and Tsygankov to drift inside and link up with Yaremchuk. Bale did not press wide and supported Ramsey and Allen in the middle of the park when needed since they were getting outnumbered; James was the one who jumped out on a more regular basis. Moore was tasked with closing down balls towards the holding midfielder, Stepanenko, with Wales defending in a 5-2-3 block.
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