Belief is building that Wales will soon end their long wait for a return to a major tournament. Secure a positive result in Brussels on Sunday and, though there will still be scope for twists and turns in the campaign, Welsh fans will be even more optimistic that their team can join the international elite for the first time since 1958.
The assignment is daunting – Belgium are one of the most fancied teams in the competition and the favourites to win Group B – but it is Chris Coleman’s team that stand atop that group and they could barely be in better shape.
For once Coleman has a near full-strength squad to choose from, with Aaron Ramsey and Joe Allen being particularly welcome back from injury along with Sam Ricketts, James Collins and Adam Matthews, three more players who forced to miss last month’s victory over Cyprus and the draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina. Mind you, James Chester and Chris Gunter performed so well in those games that Collins and Matthews may have to be content with a place on the bench at the King Baudouin Stadium.
The four points gained from those two matches confirmed the strides that Wales have made in the past 12 months, during which they have lost once in eight matches and ignited genuine new hope. They have shown that this team is not just Gareth Bale and guests.
Coleman, whose position had been under threat until the upturn in form, is entitled to project boldness. “We have got to go there, without being cocky, and be a bit bolshy,” the manager said.
“We have got a bit about us. We cannot go there thinking it is OK just to compete and not get anything, because it is not. We need to qualify and what do we need to do to qualify? We need to get points and Belgium are another team in our group to get points from. Home or away, it does not matter.
“The pressure was on in the last camp and we did well and got four points. This time nobody expects anything from us, but I do. I expect us to get something and we need to go in there thinking that even if we know all about the Hazards and so on, we are no mugs ourselves.”
It was in Brussels that the Welsh resurgence began, the 1-1 draw in October 2013 being the first persuasive evidence that Coleman was succeeding in turning things around.
That was also the night Belgium sealed qualification for the World Cup and their manager, Marc Wilmots, is struggling to build on their display in Brazil. He returned from the tournament determined to get more out of the awesome attacking power at his disposal but so far he has been unable to find the right balance – having worries that his defence is over-exposed.
He used Wednesday’s friendly against Iceland to deploy all three of his strikers at the same time – Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke returning from a long injury to play alongside Romelu Lukaku and Divock Origi – but even though Belgium won 3-1 in Brussels, the manager was aghast at how open his team were at the back, where the injury to Vincent Kompany leaves a void that Wales will hope to exploit.
Wilmots has said he will try to solidify his team by making midfielder Axel Witsel to provide a better screen for the centre-back and – in view of the threat posed by Bale – instructing the full-backs to be more careful in the way they go forward. Those full-backs are likely to be Tottenham’s Jan Vertonghen and Anderlecht’s Anthony Vanden Borre.
“We want to ask them those questions,” said Coleman. “There will be times when we’re up against it, we know that, they’ll be dominating possession, creating chances, we’ve got to hold on. But if we get a foothold in the game we know that with what we’ve got we can ask them some serious questions. It’s up to them to answer them.
“There will be times when we all have to defend but when we get the chance we have to go for the jugular. It will be interesting to see how Belgium handle it if they’re coming from behind and we’re on top. I don’t think they’ve had to do that too many times.”
