Wales may savour the sense of symmetry. The last — indeed the only — time they qualified for a major tournament, they did so by beating Israel.
That was in 1958, when, the day before the Munich Air Disaster, Jimmy Murphy’s team secured their place at a 16-team World Cup. This is 2015, when they are on the brink of booking a spot in a 24-team European Championships. Beat Israel and their ticket to France will be stamped.
The similarities, the opponents aside, are few. Yet manager Chris Coleman found one minutes after Wales’ 1-0 win in Cyprus on Thursday thanks to Gareth Bale’s late goal.
“The goal was straight out of a John Charles soccer book,” he said. “John Charles would have been proud of that header.”
There are those who believe that if Charles had been fit, Wales would have beaten Pele’s Brazil in the 1958 World Cup quarter-finals. His exploits at Juventus made him Wales’ greatest footballing export and the pre-eminent player in their history.
Until now, perhaps. Coleman compared Bale to Charles for the bullet header in Nicosia. Charles won three Serie A titles abroad, but never the European Cup, which Bale helped Real Madrid secure by scoring in the 2014 final.
Moreover, while Charles helped make Welsh footballing history, the national team’s reliance on Bale is still bigger. It is an exaggeration to call any side who have not conceded for 414 minutes and whose second finest player is Aaron Ramsey a one-man team, but the statistics are salient.
Wales have scored nine goals in Euro 2016 qualifying. Bale is responsible for six of them. He has created a further two. Only David Cotterill, with what was intended to be a cross against Cyprus 11 months ago but ended up a shot, has struck without a pivotal contribution from Bale.
Now Wales are Group B’s unbeaten leaders, having won away in Brussels when Belgium were ranked second in the world (with, needless to say, a Bale goal), it is remarkable to think back to their start to the pool. Their campaign might have begun amid embarrassment, but for Bale. They trailed to Andorra until he equalised. They were held by the minnows for almost an hour before he scored a late winner. There is a temptation to brand it Wales’ most important goal of the group; the psychological damage a failure to beat Andorra may have dealt them could have been crucial.
Wales’ tactics may have a fundamental simplicity — afford Bale a free role and give the ball to him — but they are working. More than most, Sunday’s opponents can testify to that. Israel were beaten 3-0 in Haifa in March when Bale set up Ramsey’s opener and scored the next two. Eitan Tibi was sent off for a foul on Bale. He served as a one-man destroyer.
The footballing gifts have been allied with physical force and a seemingly unstoppable momentum. Coleman may have been reminded of Charles in the way Bale leapt to decide the game in Cyprus. A more recent comparison comes in the form of a current colleague. Cristiano Ronaldo developed an ability to jump before opponents and hang in the air.
Bale will always find himself evaluated, often unfavourably, against Real’s alpha male. He exists in a permanent swirl of speculation amid the ongoing debate if he has a future at the Bernabeu and because of Manchester United’s never-ending interest in him.
Rafael Benitez’s decision to deploy the Welshman as a No 10 has been controversial — although any other decisions he made about Bale may have been equally contentious — and the Spaniard resorted to sarcasm to explain the situation last week.
“In the case of Bale, it appears that a player who is quick, heads well and has a great shot is a problem,” he said. In international football, the problem lies purely with those charged with stopping Bale. It has seemed a task beyond Israel, like Cyprus, Andorra and Belgium. It is why Wales are on the brink.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @NatSportUAE