Wales were dismantled 4-2 at home by Armenia in Cardiff last night as the expectation and initial pre match exuberance melted away to embarrassment in some quarters, on to disbelief in others. Suffice to say Armenia with one win in their last ten games were seen as a guaranteed three points in this Group D Euro 2024 clash. It wasn’t to be.

It all started rather nicely with Wales taking a 1-0 win through Dan James but from there on in it was a calamitous display at the back, and a lack of foresight and game management up front. Brennan Johnson looked like he had the guile to unlock the Armenian defence but that pace was never really found after looking a threat in the initial fifteen minutes of the game. Johnson just disappeared from view. Zelarayan‘s sweet finish drew his country level. Then Joe Rodon forgot his lines losing the ball and Spertsyan's perfect ball drifted over Chris Mepham for the unmarked Ranos to head home. That was 2-1 and the visitors were good for it as well. Connor Roberts long throws weren’t the answer as Wales ran out of ideas. It was quite sad to see at times.

It's the first time Wales have been defeated in a home European Championship qualification game since losing to England in 2011, and the shocked expressions on the Wales bench told all you needed to know about the performance and how this defeat will impact on the group. A large travelling away support will go to Turkey for Monday’s game far less positive than they have been after recent matches, Croatia especially. It isn’t all lost but a defeat like this, and as seriously poor as it clearly was throws huge doubt on Page and his selections and tactics for these two games. Really with a little more tactical thought it could have been won.

2-1 became 3-1 in the second half when Ranos again out foxed the hapless Rodon to drive home the third for Armenia. A brief sign of hope arrived when Harry Wilson got Wales second, but that was taken away when Zelarayan scored his second with Joe Morrell completely lost on the ball. This game was meant to be the ghost of the World Cup exorcised after an excellent 1-1 draw in Croatia but it wasn’t meant to be. As much as the crowd sang and cheered on their side it was an impossible task. Once again talk of the manager ( Rob Page ) not having the tactical nouse filled the pubs post match. However, Morrell and Rodon were the reasons why Wales lost this game if you want some good old British blame to be handed out. You could couple that with the wrong tactics, or even players who thought once they went one goal up it would be a breeze. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Page did react far too slowly to the game as it developed in front of him, he didn’t have an option that could find him goals up front once Kieffer Moore was red carded ( above ) for a stupid challenge on the Armenian keeper. That really did cement the win for the visitors who had won only two of their last twenty one games. Best make that three from twenty two now. What a disaster.

Wales: Ward; Roberts, Rodon, Mepham, 🟨 Davies; Ampadu, Ramsey (c) (Morrell 67); James (Broadhead 82), Wilson (Bradshaw 82), Johnson (Brooks 71); Moore 🟥

Subs: Hennessey, A. Davies, Fox, N.Williams, Harris, J.James, Cabango, Cullen ( O.Cooper not selected )

Armenia: Chancharevich; 🟨 Dashyan, Calisir (Haroyan 62), Arutiunian, Mkrtchyan; 🟨 Iwu, Spertsyan (c), Tiknizyan; 🟨 Barseghyan (Bichakhchyan 63), Zelarayan (Briasco 76), Ranos 🟨 (Serobyan 88)

Subs: Buchnev, Beglaryan, Shaghoyan, Davidyan, Margaryan, Harutyunyan, Wbeymar, Piloyan

POST MATCH
Paul Mullen was a name that many were talking about last season and possibly a few eyebrows were raised by Cymru followers when he was excluded for the Armenia and Turkey games. On the Wrexham hit man Page said: "If he's playing in League Two and scoring goals, then we will look at and consider him. But there's a massive gap from where he's been to League Two. We will continue to monitor him. I watched him against Sheffield United in the FA Cup and I was very impressed by him. I wouldn’t want to play against him. Forget his goal scoring and his eye for goal, I like him because he’s a pain in the backside to play against. He's like a rat, I like his work rate and I want that. We will keep monitoring him and if he keeps scoring goals as he goes up the levels he’ll prove himself."

Personally I’m not too sure how much monitoring a man in such good form requires with forty six goals in fifty one games for his club.

ON THE WRONG PAGE ?
Post match Page was clearly in some shock at losing this game so badly. "That wasn't us at all by any stretch of the imagination," he said. "We got off the best possible start. We said we needed to get off to a good start and get an early goal, which we did and we created a couple of chances after that, but we weren't clinical. When you play the way we play against their formation, you have to be compact as a team and we were far too expansive tonight and got done on four transitions. They were probably the worst goals you're ever going to see. They were clinical. "Everything happens for a reason," he said. "Perhaps it's the slap we need. A bit of a reality check. Everybody's getting starry eyed and carried away. We had a great start in March but there aren't any bad teams any more.

"Teams are going toe-to-toe and we've had a slap tonight. I didn't know it was needed before the game. I felt in such a positive place coming into the game. i didn't see that coming. It's shocked me as much as anyone else tonight. We all said this morning when we had a staff meeting that this has probably been the best camp. The environment was great. The work we've done. We've put a lot of work into them. The detail of the game and we've gone out and in the first 10-15 minutes I thought we did okay. We got off to a good start. Defensively, we've been solid. I always reference Croatia away. To go and get a result like that in Croatia you have to be organised. You have to be hard-working. You have to be solid from top to bottom. Today we weren't. I'll never question the attitude of those players. We as coaches, we take the responsibility. The attitude of the players has been incredible all week. We'll be up first thing in the morning, we'll watch it back and we'll learn from it. The positive is we've got a game on Monday to put it right."

OPTA STATO
* This was only the second time that Armenia have scored four goals away from home in a Euro qualifier, having previously done so in September 2011 vs Slovakia (4-0).

* James ended a run of 16 appearances for Wales without scoring, netting his first since October 2021 (vs Czech Republic).

* Five of James' six goals for his country have been scored in home matches.

* Zelarayan scored his first and second international goals for Armenia, on what was his eighth appearance for the national team. Indeed, Zelarayan was directly involved in three of Armenia's four goals in the game, netting a brace and assisting another.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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