Wales manager Craig Bellamy came face-to-face with Bosnia star Edin Dzeko towards the end of Thursday’s World Cup play-off in Cardiff. The two were going head-to-head for a spot in Tuesday’s World Cup play-off final against Italy, with the game having gone to extra time and penalties.
The home side took the lead in emphatic fashion when Dan James let rip from the best part of 25 yards out, with the thunderous strike no match for Nikola Vasilj in the Bosnian goal. It felt like a matter of time before a second Wales goal arrived, with Bellamy’s side continuing to knock on the door.
Unfortunately for the World Cup hopefuls, it didn’t arrive. Instead, the second goal of the game was a Bosnian one, with none other than ex-Manchester City star Dzeko heading home from close range. Dzeko, now into his forties, found half a yard in the penalty area to net the leveller.
That was how the match stayed up until the 90th minute, as well as an extra 30 minutes in extra time, but it was on the sidelines where tensions boiled over. After a Bosnia player had gone down injured under a soft challenge, Bellamy and several of the Welsh coaches reacted angrily, much to the dislike of the opposition bench.
The two benches exchanged words, but it was Bellamy and Dzeko who were the most animated. The pair were involved in a mini scuffle, with the referee showing both of them a yellow card for their troubles, as well as the Bosnian manager, Sergej Barbarez.
It was Dzeko and Bosnia who had the last laugh though, as they were the side who progressed into the play-off final. Misses in the shootout from Brennan Johnson and Neco Williams did the damage for Wales, who have been denied back-to-back World Cup appearances for the first time in their history.
Speaking after the contest, skipper Ethan Ampadu told the BBC: “We’re lost for words. We prepared as well as we could have and I thought we played well. We can hold our heads up high because we fought for everything, sometimes in life things don’t go your way.
“We’re always going to look back at what we could have done better, maybe we could have managed the last 10 minutes better to make sure we stayed on the attacking foot. That’s something we can look at in the future, but for now it’s a lot of disappointment.”