Wales host Northern Ireland in a friendly on Tuesday, a match that nobody wants.
The fixture is having to take place because both teams lost their World Cup play-off semi-finals on Thursday, against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy respectively.
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So, while the winners of those ties face each other in Zenica for a place at this summer’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the losers must meet in Cardiff.
The game will provide fringe players with a chance to impress their bosses, Craig Bellamy and Michael O’Neill, who are understandably keen to stress the value of this encounter.
But for the fans and anyone else associated with these teams, this is a tough sell.
“For the supporters, it’s a complete dead rubber. It is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard – it’s pointless,” was the blunt assessment from former Northern Ireland midfielder Chris Brunt.
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The reality, however, is that international football’s governing bodies have decreed the game must go ahead, whether anyone likes it or not.
Wales ‘refocus’ after World Cup ‘heartbreak’
Wales head coach Bellamy is not trying to hide the fact that he and his players are still processing the “heartbreak” of their penalty shootout defeat at home to Bosnia.
But the former captain wants his players to learn from Thursday’s anguish and approach the Northern Ireland friendly as they would a competitive fixture.
“You have to refocus and be consistent in your preparation, be prepared as if it was the final, but we always prepare like every game’s the final,” said Bellamy.
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“Let’s get down to business again. I understand the disappointment. We have to feel it, and that’s from everyone, but we have to get our heads down and get back to work.
“It’s difficult for every team who’s not got into the final, of course. We have to fulfil fixtures. We both have to pick ourselves up and then move forward.”
Attacking midfielder Harry Wilson echoed those sentiments during the same round of interviews on Monday and the fact that one of Wales’ star players was addressing the media suggests that Bellamy may select a fairly strong team on Tuesday.
They will be without midfielders Jordan James and Rubin Colwill due to injury, while winger Daniel James – who scored to put Wales 1-0 up against Bosnia – is a doubt.
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Their absences will open the door for fringe members of the squad, as will the fact that a significant number of players played 120 minutes on Thursday.
“It’s another opportunity to earn another cap,” former Wales defender James Chester told BBC Wales’ Feast of Football. “And for the boys who didn’t play on Thursday night, it’s a real opportunity.”
Speaking on the same programme, another former Wales defender Nia Jones said: “You’d come into camp knowing that you’re playing two games, and you’d absolutely hope to death that it’s not this type of match, but Northern Ireland will be in completely the same boat.
“Emotionally it’ll be hard but physically as well. Obviously, the boys went 120 minutes and penalties, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s quite heavy rotation.”
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Jones believes Bellamy will see the game as “a really good opportunity to test a few other individuals that haven’t had as much exposure in this campaign, to see if they can really adopt his philosophy”.
She added: “But it is also important that we recognise that these are people, and they will be sulking for a couple of days, still hurting.
“It’s an emotional game, and they’ll have felt the weight of the expectation of everybody on their shoulders.”
‘We knew the situation’
Northern Ireland’s defeat in Italy was filled with pride about a youthful squad who took on one of Europe’s heavyweights but came up short, which was in stark contrast to the pain in Cardiff.
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For O’Neill, the different manner of their respective World Cup dreams being extinguished will not impact the game.
In short, “a defeat’s a defeat”.
“When we came together last Sunday, and when Wales came together last Sunday, we both had a target and unfortunately that doesn’t exist for either of us now,” he said.
“The outcome was the same, so I don’t think it will affect the game.”
When asked if he felt it was “unfair” that the teams had to play in Cardiff just five days after their respective play-off heartbreaks, O’Neill said “we knew the situation coming into it”.
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“We would both like to be here with different circumstances, but we knew a defeat would lead to this type of situation.”
The Irish FA offered supporters who were going to travel to the second game with hopes of a World Cup place being on the line a chance for a refund, something the association described as a “one-time option”.
Northern Ireland will be without Ali McCann, Ruairi McConville, Paddy McNair and Bailey Peacock-Farrell for the game in Wales, and O’Neill did suggest he would make changes to his starting team.
The 56-year-old, who acknowledged it would be “challenging for the players”, said he would rather Northern Ireland had the opportunity to reach the World Cup but come up short and face this fixture, rather than some nations “who weren’t at that point of the competition” and had two friendlies.
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“Both us as nations were in there fighting for a World Cup place, right to the second last hurdle,” O’Neill added.
“That’s what we take from it, there were some big nations that weren’t at that point of the competition.
“It’s just the circumstance we find ourselves in and we have to make sure that we make the best of the opportunity that we have.”
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