Martin Tyler's Euro 2016 diary: Wales' terrific achievement
Monday 27 June 2016 10:32, UK
Sky Sports' voice of football Martin Tyler is commentating at Euro 2016 for UEFA's world feed - but that hasn't stopped him from sharing his thoughts and experiences with skysports.com. In his latest diary entry, he airs his views on how he would structure the tournament differently...
Here, Tyler reacts to Wales' 1-0 win over Northern Ireland in the last 16 in Paris, what it means to the Welsh, and some commiserations for the Green and White Army.
Read the rest of Martin Tyler's diary entries here
It was a strange affair in some ways, in that Northern Ireland probably played above themselves and lost, whereas Wales played beneath themselves and won.
Although Gareth Bale didn't score, he played a major part. It was about the two Gareths in fact, and my heart went out to McAuley, who has been a great contributor for Northern Ireland's adventure, including scoring their first goal against Ukraine and getting them in a position to get through to the last 16.
It was a desperately difficult ball to defend, and Hal Robson-Kanu was waiting to knock the ball into the net. But these things happen in football, and I'm working with Smudger [Alan Smith] who says it is a defender's lot, these things happen. Unfortunately for McAuley and Northern Ireland it happened at this stage of the tournament.
But first and foremost, let's complement both nations in getting out of the group, and even getting to the finals, which was a terrific feat.
Nathan Blake and Steve Lomas give verdicts on Wales v N Ireland tie
Wales are now in the quarter-finals, where, as some people are forgetting, they have been before. They got to the last eight stage in 1976 in a different format - losing to Yugoslavia over two legs - before the four winning sides went to the final four-team tournament in Yugoslavia.
My job in 1976 was to edit the highlights of the first leg as I was just starting my commentary career. My memory told me I was commentating in the afternoon at Reading, a 3-1 win over Crewe Alexandra in the Fourth Division, and I had to rush back to London Weekend Television studios on the Southbank and be there in time to log and edit the highlights. A busy day for me.
As for the atmosphere in Paris, it was very good, and just for us it was unusual. It was probably usual for the French. There was a massive number of ex-players there today in the broadcasting area, all sorts of Welsh and Northern Irish legends, which made it quite an amazing experience before the game.
It was hard to concentrate on preparing for the game because there was so many old memories to talk about - from Ireland we had Gerry Armstrong, Iain Dowie, Gerry Taggart, Norman Whiteside, Keith Gillespie, and from Wales we had Robbie Savage, Kevin Ratcliffe, Malcolm Allen, Iwan Roberts, Danny Gabbidon and more. It was great fun to see them at it before the game with a neutral head on.
It's a great achievement for Wales, but they also got to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 1958 where they were beaten by Brazil and somebody called Pele, the 17-year-old that nobody had really heard of. That was the start of his quarter-final, semi-final and final run - scoring six goals in those three games - which made him a sensation.
Today, I think Wales were not comfortable as favourites. I think they are so often underdogs, and they will be underdogs again in the quarter-finals, which will suit them better.
A special mention today must go to Ashley Williams. I've seen him have treatment so many times in games, but I've never seen him go off. He's a total warrior. They had James Collins to come on, a perfect person in that situation to cover him, but Ashley just wouldn't go off. In his own way, he is as important to Wales as Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey.
Wales have been together five weeks now, and they're having a lot of fun out in their training camp in Dinard, with all sorts of activities. I don't think they've ever been together for this length of time, and it's a great test of the camaraderie in the group.
I've been at tournaments where I've seen teams who say: "We've done what we've come here to do, we've got this far, and really we've been away from home for too long."
I've seen that down the years; teams that are happy to do what is expected of them but not push back the frontiers because they get stir crazy. But there was nothing like that with these two teams, and I feel for Northern Ireland, who now head home.
Someone was telling me today that Wales' demeanour is very cool, and that they're ready to go again and are not thinking that this is a romantic story. They want to keep winning.
