Wales will be hoping to move just one win away from qualifying for their first World Cup finals since 1958 with a victory against Austria tonight.
It has been a painful run of near misses for Wales; 64 years ago was when they last managed to get through the play-offs, defeating Israel 4-0 on aggregate.
[Whispers]
— Wales 🏴 (@Cymru) March 24, 2022
It’s matchday 🏴#TogetherStronger pic.twitter.com/laY5eZZiej
If they can defeat Austria, they will face the winner of the match between Scotland vs Ukraine which has unfortunately been delayed due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This fixture will now be played in June with the final following in the same month.
It is important that Wales do not dwell on their past endeavours, for example their most recent World Cup play-off loss to the Republic of Ireland in 2017.
Bale said at the beginning of this campaign that it could be his last chance to qualify for a World Cup as by 2026 the forward will be 37-years-old.
He went on to state that this would be one of the biggest challenges of his career so far.
In Euro 2016, Wales had their best-ever run in a competition and they would love to replicate that if they get the chance.
Team news:
The positive news for Wales is that Bale has confirmed he is fully fit and ready to start despite missing the El Classico on Sunday.
Wales will be without lead talisman, Kieffer Moore though, which is a massive loss, the Bournemouth striker suffered a broken foot just days after completing a move from Cardiff.
They also will not have the services of usual starting goalkeeper Danny Ward, forward Tyler Roberts and defender James Lawrence.
Portsmouth midfielder, Joe Morrell will also miss out due to suspension from picking up too many yellow cards.
Elsewhere, Ramsey is available to play, he scored his first goal for Rangers at the weekend having recently completed a move from Juventus.
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For the visitors, Andreas Weimann has earned his first call up in seven years after a recent impressive spell of form for Bristol City.
They have also added Eintracht Frankfurt’s Stefan Ilsanker and Arminia Bielefield’s Alessandro Schopf to the squad.
If Wales can come out on top, it will round out a special era of football for Wales and leave a lot of inspiration for the upcoming generation.
