Wales 1 Holland 2: Burnley flop Weghorst wins it at death after Norrington-Davies equalises in frantic added-time drama
LOUIS VAN GAAL’S Holland brought World Cup bound Wales back down to earth with a bump with a stoppage time winner.
Dragons fans turned out ready to party after seeing their heroes clinch a place at the tournament for the first time since 1958.
But Burnley striker Wout Weghorst nodded home deep into added on time to condemn Rob Page’s men to a first home defeat since November 2018.
And this time not even the introduction of Gareth Bale with 12 minutes remaining could save that proud 19-match sequence.
In truth, there will be little that England boss Gareth Southgate could learn from this ahead of the ‘Battle of Britain’in Qatar on November 29.
Rob Page opted to give many of his understudies a run out while several of his senior men got the chance to put their feet up.
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Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen, Wayne Hennessey, Kieffer Moore and Neco Williams were all given the night off completely by Rob Page after their efforts on Sunday.
Skipper Bale – once again the toast of the nation against Ukraine - was named in the squad but only on the bench.
The play-off win over Ukraine means the Dragons have 165 days to prepare for their World Cup opener against USA in al Rayyan.
And Louis van Gaal’s Dutch were ideal opponents as they could yet be their opponents in the last 16 in the tournament if both make it through the group.
Not that Page will have picked many pointers up from this about a possible knock-out rival.
LvG made 11 changes from the team who thumped Belgium last week.
The visitors had plenty of the ball early on but some good chances came the way of the Dragons with Harry Wilson and Rhys Norrington Davies both heading off target.
With no Bale around, Wilson regained free-kick duties and sent a dipping effort which Mark Flekken had to push away.
But the Dutch began to take control as the half wore on with only a last ditch tackle from Ben Davies preventing Teun Koopmeiners from opening the scoring.
Then Cody Gakpo found space in the box but saw his shot deflect off Chris Mepham and drop just wide of Danny Ward’s post.
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Sub keeper Adam Davies replaced the Leicester man at half-time and his first job was to pick the ball out of his net.
Jerdy Schouten slipped a pass out to Koopmeiners who fired a low shot from the edge of the box into the far corner.
Former Manchester United man Dan James came closest to levelling but fired over from 20 yards after a lung-busting run.
As Wales looked for a way back into the game, Van Gaal hrew on Red Devils target Frenkie de Jong for the final quarter, who showed his quality on a couple of occasions.
Page responded by throwing on his own superstar in Bale – and he lifted the mood in the stands.
It looked like Wales had grabbed a leveller as Rhys Norrington Davies rose to head home a Connor Roberts cross in stoppage time.
But two minutes later, de Jong was involved before Tyrell Malacia crossed for Weghorst to thump a header beyond Davies.
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Wales may be going to the World Cup but after back-to-back defeats they are facing relegation in the Nations League.
Right now though, their cock-a-hoop fans probably aren’t too bothered.
