Wales captain Angharad James has revealed the squad have been given a play-off history lesson before their Women’s World Cup qualifying semi-final second leg against Albania. Wales take a 1-0 lead into the game at Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli, on Tuesday, 13 October at 19:15 BST as they chase a place at next year’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
James, the 146-cap Seattle Reign midfielder, said a players’ meeting on the first day of camp was designed to integrate the group and ensure everyone understood the importance of the camp and what it means to be in a play-off position. “We have to give everything. It’s a final game for us and every game is,” she said. “[The meeting was] just to make sure everyone’s up to speed.”
Wales have reached the play-off stages of qualification for a major tournament only three times in the history of the women’s national side. Their first attempt, in qualifying for the 2023 World Cup, ended in agony under Gemma Grainger: they beat Bosnia-Herzegovina in the semi-final before losing the final in Switzerland to a goal late in extra time, despite taking an early lead.
Two years later, the outcome was different. Wales overcame Slovakia and the Republic of Ireland to reach Euro 2025, the first women’s major tournament in the nation’s history. James was part of both the side beaten in Zurich in October 2022 and the team that won in Dublin, and she said the contrasting emotions fuelled the later success. “The feeling that we had out in Switzerland, going so close in extra time and narrowly missing out, it fuelled us for Dublin,” she said. “There’s a big group of us that experienced that and at the start of this camp we made sure the whole group was aware of how it feels to be on both ends of that.”
Part of that history lesson included the memory of Gemma Evans losing a tooth while making a challenge during the Aviva Stadium success, with pictures of the moment shown at a team meeting. “The highs of that [included] Gemma losing a tooth and unfortunately it made it on to the big screen, we showed the girls that,” James said. “We’ve had so many high moments with this group and hopefully we’ve got the biggest one yet to come with the World Cup.”
Wales’ immediate task is to get past an Albania side they beat twice during the group phase of this qualifying campaign, after a scruffy performance in Shkoder last Friday. James is one of only five players who began the decisive game in Dublin 22 months ago who are in contention to start against Albania, partly because of a lengthy injury list. She said Wales will not focus on their 1-0 advantage. “If we overthink that we have a 1-0 advantage then I don’t think it’s a good thing as players,” she said. “So we’re focusing on it being a new 90-minute game. It’s a clean sheet and we’re going out there to perform and to win again.”
Should Wales get past Albania, they would face a play-off final in early December, probably against Norway, who are ranked 14th in the world and play their second leg at home to Romania on Tuesday evening after winning 2-0 away in the first leg. Wales would start as underdogs against the Norwegians. Even if they came through that potential final, they may then have to negotiate inter-confederation play-offs next February before a World Cup place is guaranteed. James believes the qualification process should be simplified, but said the focus for now is Albania and starting from scratch.