Wales play England at Wembley on Thursday evening (7:45pm) and head coach, Craig Bellamy was smiling when he spoke about his sides chances against a team valued at around 1.4 billion.

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Speaking on the forthcoming fixture Bellamy stated, “England have a ridiculous squad, like France. They have a transfer market value of 1.4billion, ours is £170million. If you were a boxing promoter you wouldn’t put us together. It wouldn’t be allowed. We don’t go off values, but the simple fact is they don’t just have one team. They have two, three, four and France and others have the same level.”

It’s very clear how tough the test is that this Wales side face. For many years the Wales set up was heavily influenced by a whole raft of Swansea City youth and then academy products via the first team. Now we are seeing a new age developing with even Rubin Colwill getting a sniff at the red shirt in recent times. Cardiff City are also seeing their academy pathways being rewarded. That may well be as a result of Rubin playing at a lower level than the Swans and Wrexham against teams who have caused the Bluebirds some angst this season. The most recent Leyton Orient and Burton Albion. However, there’s some interesting facts that could come out of this fixture.

Rubin Colwill has been called up to the Wales squad along with team mate Isaak Davies, a real talent, now Ramsey and Dan James have pulled out of this international break.

⚽️ Wales football facts 1 : There have been 104 previous fixtures between Cymru and England dating back to January 1879 when England claimed a 2-1 win at the Kennington Oval in London. England have won sixty nineof the previous meetings between the two nations compared to Wales fourteen victories and there have been twenty one draws. The most recent meeting took place at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar when England won 3-0

Based on that when we look at the Wales squad, with news that Aaron Ramsey is out of selection with injury there are some obvious choices for Bellamy to choose from. Ben Cabango (Swansea City)is is in superb form this season as is Karl Darlow, back in the Premier League alongside Swansea product Joe Rodon (both Leeds United) The Colwill brothers (Rubin & Joel) both at Cardiff City could make history this century if they appear on the pitch at the same time. The last brothers to do that were John and Mel Charles in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Read up on the Alice Street boys from Swansea. That’s a mind blowing piece of history where five players came from the same street and made Welsh footballing history. Bellamy will be looking towards Harry Wilson (Fulham) Kieffer Moore (Wrexham) and Brennan Johnson (Spurs) for goals this time around. Liam Cullen (Swansea City) has come to life in a Wales shirt and is a player Bellamy likes a lot. It’s refreshing to see both Swansea and Cardiff players be they ex or current in the national side. Both clubs also have quite a number of players featuring in the age grade sides as well. The future is bright.

We think Jordan James (Leicester City) Ethan Ampadu ( Leeds United) and Neco Williams (Forest) will all start this fixture. Neco comes from the north of the country (Cefn-mawr) and an area as a whole that has huge loyalty to the national team. This is a side that should give England a game at Wembley but any thoughts of a win are best put aside, although Leighton James blew a few cobwebs off England back in 1977 (below) Football is meant for games like this.

⚽️ Wales football facts 2 : The last Wales victory over England was in May 1984 when Mark Hughes scored the only goal of the game at the Racecourse in Wrexham, while Wales one and only win at Wembley Stadium was in May 1977 when the Leighton James scored from the penalty spot in another 1-0 victory.

We have been told that eight thousand Wales followers will be at Wembley for this friendly, if that’s the correct terminology. It’s pretty certain the vast majority of the UK & Ireland will be cheering on Bellamy’s boys. More later this week on this game, one which is at least a decent filler as we move onto the big one against Belgium (WCQ) next Monday with a 7:45pm kick off.

Photographs : Dimitris Legakis, Colwill family and already licensed Reuters

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