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Pressure on Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey to Succeed Where Giggs Failed for Wales
Published: September 5, 2014
In a 24-year professional career that saw him represent United 963 times, Giggs made just 64 appearances for his national team. To put that into some sort of context, James Milner is already on 49 caps for England—and he only made his debut five years ago.
Injury was a contributing factor in Giggs’ limited involvement, but so too was an unspoken—but fairly evident—desire to preserve himself for his club commitments. When Giggs retired from the international arena as a 34-year-old he cited a desire to prolong his United career as a key factor; the reality was that he had already been doing that for a number of years.
Wales were never likely to reach an international tournament, so for Giggs a number of qualification games (and almost every friendly encounter) came with more risks attached than potential rewards. On more than one occasion timely knocks kept him from joining up with Welsh squads, eliminating any risk of him picking up a more serious problem in pursuit of a fruitless cause.
The one occasion Wales did come close to reaching a major tournament was in 2003, after they finished second (behind Italy) in qualification for the 2004 European Championships. Giggs started in all eight of those group games, scoring once in the 4-0 rout of Azerbaijan.
Wales’ finish earned them a play-off place in which they were unlucky enough to be drawn against Russia. But a 0-0 draw in Moscow left Mark Hughes’s side a home win away from a first international tournament since 1976.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. Wales edged the game at the Millennium Stadium, but after Vadim Evseev had headed his side into an undeserved lead, Russia held on. Giggs missed arguably his side’s best chance, poking a shot against the post moments before half-time.
It was as close...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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