Tottenham trio struggle to make the difference for Wales as automatic route to Euro 2024 is blocked
Tottenham stars Brennan Johnson, Ben Davies and Joe Rodon all struggled to make the difference as Wales saw their automatic route to the 2024 UEFA European Championships blocked on Tuesday 21 November.
Wales needed to beat Turkey and hope Croatia would drop points against Armenia in Group D on Tuesday night.
In the end, their 1-1 draw coupled with the Croatian’s 1-0 win in Zagreb means they will now need to qualify for next summer’s showpiece in Germany via the play-offs.
Although Ante Budimir’s winner for Croatia rendered Wales’ result meaningless, Rob Page and his players will still feel frustrated that they couldn’t do everything in their power to achieve qualification by beating Turkey, who had already qualified for next summer’s tournament prior to kick-off.
Johnson in particular had a night to forget as he struggled to provide any meaningful impact in front of goal on what was a frustrating evening in Cardiff. The Tottenham forward did force goalkeeper Altay Bayindir into smart saves on either side of half-time, but other than those moments, he was rather anonymous.
As per Sofascore, in addition to those two shots on target, the 22-year-old saw one shot blocked and completed just 67 per cent of his passes, although one of those was key. He failed to win either of his two ground or two aerial duels and was unsuccessful with the one long ball forward that he played, while he also picked up a yellow card.
It has been an underwhelming international break for the Spurs summer-signing and he will hope to build on his recent goal against Wolves, rather than his disappointing performances for Wales, upon his return to north London this week.
Meanwhile, 30-year-old centre-back Davies also failed to cover himself in much glory as he gave away the penalty which led to Turkey’s 70th-minute equaliser.
He was sub-par compared to his defensive partner Rodon, who is spending the season on loan with Leeds United, with the pair’s performances against Turkey suggesting it is Davies who should have been shipped out this summer.
Rodon made two more clearances (six) than Davies, the same number of interceptions (one) and tackles (one), and also completed 94 per cent of his passes compared to Davies’ 78 per cent.
On top of this, Rodon won an extra ground duel and played one more successful long pass forward, while also avoiding a booking, with Davies seeing yellow for the foul he made which led to the penalty.
Wales will now host either Ukraine, Finland or Iceland in a one-legged play-off semi-final on 21 March. Victory in that match would see them face either Poland or Estonia in another one-off tie five days later, with the winner securing their place at the 2024 EUROS.
Meanwhile, for Ange Postecoglou, the Australian will hope this disappointment doesn’t cause too much distraction upon Johnson and Davies’ return to Tottenham, as the players will need to be focussed ahead of a tough run of games at club level.
In other Tottenham news, one star of the women’s team has the chance to step up amid recent injury developments.