For Euro 2016’s upstarts, the cold, hard reality of the 2018 World Cup beckons

Wales have a new churlish indulgence, a fetish that has turned into a peculiar pre-match ritual: they favour lopsided team photographs. The bizarre habit began years ago, but, in recent times, away to Austria and at home, in a disappointing 1-1 draw against Georgia, the Welsh consciously revolted against the traditional six-plus-five photo setup.

Were they going for a human pyramid or a collective tribute to the late great Gary Speed against Serbia in their World Cup qualifier on Saturday? They reverted to a 4-7 photo formation – its graphic banter and refined infantile humour very uniquely Welsh. At least the team photo did not contradict the prohibition of making political, religious or personal statements that overly zealous, and often hawkish, football administrators want to enact with the frightening compulsion of German army officer.

The Welsh players believe Dame Fortuna will favour them for their photogenic exploits, but for all the light-heartedness, they faced major pressure against Serbia – the design of contemporary team photos is jolly, designing a return to the four yearly high mass of football, the World Cup, requires a grand plan and a steadfastness.

An arduous task

The World Cup is after all the pinnacle of the beautiful game, a congregation of leading ball artists, refined tactical magicians and helter-skelter fan armies, engaged in a month-long sacrosanct and delirious roller coaster of elite football, with the final and the right to hoist the iconic five kg trophy aloft at the end as the culmination. Fans’ recollection of footballing moments that delighted or, for worse, deeply disappointed are, almost inevitably, connected to the World Cup and not with Europe’s prime club competition, the Champions League, or with the European Championship.

Wales have not qualified for the World Cup since 1958. It is an arduous task to reach that pinnacle – the complexion and complexity dumb-founding the same process for Europe’s continental championship. Before the Serbia game, Wales’s captain Ashley Williams had sensed a similarity to a win over Belgium in a qualifier for Euro 2016. The defining narrative of that game was simple: Wales had to win.

Wales’s opening goal against Serbia echoed that game, when Hal Robson-Kanu had provided Gareth Bale with a goal by hassling Belgian defender Jason Denayer. On Saturday night, Robson-Kanu forced Matija Nastasic into an error and fed Bale to score. After a testing opening half hour, Robson-Kanu’s tenacity was decisive. Chris Gunther hoicked a ball carelessly forward, in behind the Serbian defense. Natasic dawdled needlessly and Kanu muscled him off the ball. He swivelled and played in Bale. The uber-galactic star of a £150 million wage – in an ensemble of blue collar players, with the notable exception of Aron Ramsey – took a touch and scored, through the legs of lunging Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic and past a flummoxed Serbian goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic.

The Bale-reverence and goal galvanised the hosts. They broke with menace. Kanu’s far post header merited another goal after a lightening quick counter in which Wales showed some incisive passing – Ramsey with a long diagonal, Bale with a neatly floated cross into the box. Tempers rose as Luka Milivojevic rose a foot on Robson-Kanu. The Spanish referee Alberto Mallenco did not award a free kick – but did, when Neil Taylor’s boot flicked Tadic in the face. It was fine-tuned martial arts with blood gushing from the Serbian’s face. A miffed and mystified Gareth Bale received a yellow card for protesting.

Euro 2016 is history

The booking precipitated an hour of bellicose intensity. There was a crackling in the air, a electricity associated with Wales’s World Cup venture. Their “Tarzan” – Bale’s new nickname after his bun turned into flowing locks against Georgia – and their “Rambo” – Arsenal midfielder Ramsey – must propel the Dragons to Russia in 2018. Rambo became “rambo” after the interval as Ramsey struggled with his fitness. Tarzan nearly scored a second with minutes remaining, but the angle was against him and the ball clattered the inside the post. A minute later, at the other end, Aleksander Mitrovic, the combustible Newcastle striker, who had been anonymous in the game, equalised with a neat header which went in off the post.

“It’s a learning curve,” commented a dejected Wales coach Chris Coleman after the match. Indeed, Wales have transformed into a credible and competent team in the past years, but this qualification campaign is the litmus test – they seek admission to the “32 club”, the footballing equivalent of the Ivy League or Oxbridge. Facing Serbia evokes bitter memories for Wales. A double defeat – 6-1 away and 0-3 at home – against the Serbians dashed Welsh aspirations of reaching the 2014 World Cup.

Wales must prove the value of their historic run at Euro 2016. They showed measure with a 3-1 victory against Belgium. That quarter-final was Wales’s best game of the tournament. A lacklustre Belgium offered little against Wales’s cunning 3-5-2 formation and overdose of grit. Resolution, however, is not enough to qualify for the World Cup.

Overall, Euro 2016 was a tepid and timid procession of low-scoring and cautious matches, with David vs Goliath encounters of limited outfits, playing underwhelming top tier nations within their resources. The tournament scarcely offered the quality and depth one should expect from a European Championship. Caution turned into mediocrity. The low playing standard was the result of the European Championship’s expansion policy. For the first time, 24 teams participated.

Iceland, together with Wales, was another benefactor of the tournament’s new magnitude. They reached the quarter-finals before France and Paul Pogba dispatched the competition’s barnstorming sensation with a 5-2 scoreline. Iceland’s historic win was a whiff of fresh air in a tournament that was reminiscent of football’s dark ages and the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Iceland had demonstrated the conscious self-uniqueness of a hardened folk who built a life on a remote volcanic rock.

Their post-Euro 2016 transition after the departure of Lars Lagerback, the architect of their Euro 2016 success courtesy of an overdue injection of professionalism, has gone smoothly: they drew away to Ukraine, won against Finland and defeated Turkey 2-0. As former assistant to Lagerback, coach Heimir Hallgrímsson has not modified the Iceland setup much. But on Saturday, a brace from Croatia’s Marcelo Brozović was too much for Iceland. They sit, like Wales, in third spot of their group and must prove that their splendid achievements at the European Championship were not the sole result of UEFA’s expansionism. Otherwise, both Wales and Iceland may have to cast their World Cup hankering aside until FIFA replicate their European counterparts and expand the World Cup to 40 or 48 teams.