Wales Hadapi Ghana di Stadion Cardiff City

Tim nasional Wales menjamu Ghana dalam pertandingan persahabatan internasional di Stadion Cardiff City pada Selasa malam, 2 Juni 2026, pukul 19.45 waktu setempat. Laga ini menjadi momentum penting bagi tuan rumah untuk memperbaiki catatan performa mereka pada bulan Juni.

Pertandingan ini awalnya direncanakan sebagai pemanasan Piala Dunia 2026, namun Wales gagal lolos setelah kalah adu penalti dari Bosnia-Herzegovina pada Maret lalu. Sementara itu, Ghana yang dilatih Carlos Queiroz tetap melaju ke turnamen tersebut dan akan menghadapi Inggris, Kroasia, serta Panama di fase grup.

Bagi Wales, laga uji coba melawan Ghana dan Romania merupakan bagian dari persiapan menghadapi kompetisi Liga A UEFA Nations League musim ini. Dilansir dari faw.cymru, skuad asuhan Craig Bellamy dijadwalkan bertanding melawan Portugal, Norwegia, dan Denmark pada akhir tahun.

Manajer Wales, Craig Bellamy, menegaskan ambisinya untuk memperbaiki rekor bertanding timnya yang dinilai kurang memuaskan setiap memasuki bulan Juni.

"I miss the every day." kata Craig Bellamy.

"I miss not being able to do this every single day, of course. But I knew what I was coming into as well." kata Craig Bellamy.

"The relationship I have with Noel [Mooney] is really, really strong. We speak every day, so we never hide anything as well. I'm completely open and honest with him." kata Craig Bellamy.

"He knows exactly how I feel. Any interest he knows exactly first-hand. Any conversations he knows exactly first-hand as well." kata Craig Bellamy.

"We don't hide anything from each other. To me the most important is when that day does come, is it a situation that's gonna allow me to become successful? It's got to have everything in place to allow me to be that and at this present time I have that here." kata Craig Bellamy.

Bellamy juga menyoroti pentingnya profesionalisme pemain dalam menghadapi dua pertandingan persahabatan di bulan Juni ini.

"When I look at our record in June, June friendlies or June competitive games, it’s nowhere near good enough." kata Craig Bellamy.

"If you want to be a serious nation, you have to address that." kata Craig Bellamy.

"People say qualifiers don’t happen in June, but they do. Our record at this time of year is nowhere near where it should be, so we have to correct it." kata Craig Bellamy.

"If you think you’re coming here to wind down, you’re wrong. If you think, as an association, you can cut corners because they’re only two friendlies, you’re wrong. That doesn’t work, so we have to change that." kata Craig Bellamy.

"That’s all the motivation I need. We have to get this June record sorted out. A top team can’t have a record like this in June, so we need to correct it." kata Craig Bellamy.

Terkait kekuatan lawan, Bellamy menilai Ghana membawa skuad berpengalaman dengan rekam jejak di Liga Utama Inggris yang akan menguji fleksibilitas taktik timnya.

"They’re a team from a different continent and a team that have already qualified for the World Cup." kata Craig Bellamy.

"We’ve got a reasonably good idea on the history of how Carlos [Queiroz] has managed and the teams he’s already had." kata Craig Bellamy.

"He might be completely different because Ghana were playing a completely different way to how he sets a team up, or he might go back to that, so we'll find out tomorrow." kata Craig Bellamy.

"I quite like that because we will have to adapt. There is no shape he’s going to be able to play that we haven’t played against, so we definitely have the solutions." kata Craig Bellamy.

"How quick we can move into those solutions is good. We can’t waste half a game trying to work something out. It’s literally a minute, two minutes." kata Craig Bellamy.

"It’s going to test us, and the same in Romania as well with a new manager. It’s good as it allows us to be very adaptable. For us, it’s about a lot of what we do and that never changes." kata Craig Bellamy.

Kekecewaan akibat gagal melaju ke Piala Dunia juga dirasakan oleh para pemain Wales, salah satunya adalah bek Neco Williams.

"We know what the fans are feeling because we are feeling the exactly the same, all the emotions of not going to America." kata Neco Williams.

"I think the most disappointing thing about not getting to the tournament is I feel if we had got there, we would have given it a real go. We would have had a good chance of going far." kata Neco Williams.

"But this is the reality – the fans have got to stick with us, believe in us as players and the manager and the good times will come." kata Neco Williams.

Pertandingan ini disiarkan secara gratis di wilayah Britania Raya melalui saluran BBC1 Wales dan S4C, serta dapat diakses melalui layanan penstriman iPlayer dan Clic. Setelah menghadapi Ghana, tim nasional Wales dijadwalkan langsung bertolak ke Bucharest untuk menantang Romania pada Sabtu mendatang.