Welsh Football 2024 review: What were the standout moments during the calendar year?

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As we approach 2025, we’re looking back on the calendar year as to which moments have stood out for the nation’s football side and leave them in good stead ahead of the New Year.

Transcript

00:00Well, Charles, looking at the Welsh football set-up once again, 2024 as a calendar year

00:07is coming to a close, as we know, and so it's time that we have a look back at what Wales

00:12have achieved this year. Of course, had a good few international breaks, a new manager

00:19as well, Craig Bellamy coming in. Formerly, he was assistant manager at Burnley under

00:24Vincent Company, but then of course, Company left, he went to Bayern Munich, and now you've

00:28got Bellamy, former Welsh striker himself, he's now taking the reins at the national

00:33team. And so, what has he managed to achieve this year, and what have the players managed

00:38to achieve, and is the future bright for Welsh football? Because of course, they've had some

00:43great success in recent times under the likes of Chris Coleman, Robert Page, but then it's

00:49also fallen off a bit of a cliff after that as well, and so Bellamy's sort of been tasked

00:54with rebuilding as well. So, yeah, where are we at with Welsh football, but what has been

00:58the highlights for this calendar year of 2024?

01:01Yeah, obviously, you mentioned it's been a bit of a strange one with the managerial

01:06change and the shift, and I think the short answer is probably Craig Bellamy's appointment.

01:11I mean, an amazing sort of turnaround he's completed, going unbeaten in his games there,

01:17and there's no Welsh fan or no-one involved with Welsh football now who isn't really,

01:22really looking forward to 2025 and what they can achieve. And then obviously, you have

01:25the World Cup in 2026, and they're going to look to really get there. I mean, the top

01:29of the group in qualification at the moment, you know, in the Nations League as well, so

01:35fantastic for them to see that. And yeah, I mean, if you look back as far as the end

01:40of 2023, obviously came across that incredibly disappointing World Cup campaign, but then

01:46they actually took four points from Croatia, who were one of the, you know, the world's

01:51best at the time. A massive win at home was incredible back end of 2023, and I think they

01:56went into this year sort of thinking, OK, let's give Rob Page another go, let's try

02:01and back him and get it. But then, you know, losses to Turkey, Armenia in there, Slovakia

02:084-0 away from home, drawing with Gibraltar in games that were massive at the time for

02:13qualification to the Euros, so really unfortunate. But, you know, they did have some good moments

02:19under him, but as you say, I think that the transition was so important. Craig Bellamy

02:25came in and he straightaway got to business. His first press conference was incredibly,

02:30you know, stern to the point that this is why I'm here, this is what we're going

02:33to try and achieve, and our standards are going to remain so high. So, yeah, I mean,

02:39to cap off the unbeaten run, 4-1 at home against Iceland, I mean, it's not a massively tough

02:46opponent, but it's really important that you do get these wins, and I think that the

02:50home crowd is also coming back massively for Wales as well. So, really excited for 2025

02:57if you are a Welsh football fan.

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