Featured Image Credit: Football Daily/Twitter
Topics: Wales, Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Ukraine, Football World Cup
Jack Kenmare
Topics: Wales, Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Ukraine, Football World Cup
An emotional Dafydd Iwan belted out ‘Yma o Hyd’ alongside the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale as Wales secured a World Cup spot for the first time in 64 years.
It might have been pouring with rain in Wales on Sunday but The Cardiff City Stadium was a cauldron of noise from minute one in their crucial play-off clash against Ukraine.
A deflected free-kick from the inevitable Gareth Bale helped Rob Page's qualify for this winter's tournament in Qatar and after the full-time whistle, thousands of fans stayed to celebrate with their team.
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In fact, Welsh folk singer Dafydd Iwan, who has been invited to entertain the crowd before the last two World Cup qualifiers, came onto the pitch to perform his iconic ‘Yma o Hyd’ song and the squad sang along with him.
‘Yma o Hyd’ or Still Here has become an anthem for the Wales national team in recent years. So what does it mean?
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Iwan, a devout nationalist, wrote the catchy song in 1982 in a bid to raise spirits, remind people to speak Welsh against all odds and to show they are still here.
In terms of the lyrics, “Er gwaetha pawb a phopeth / Ry’n ni yma o hyd,” translates to “Despite everyone and everything / We’re still here."
As mentioned earlier, the 78-year-old has sang on numerous occasions ahead of some of Wales' biggest fixtures of late and before the Ukraine clash, he did this.
Rob Page dedicated the victory to former Wales manager Gary Speed, who tragically took his own life in 2011.
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"I've said in the build-up, Gary Speed started this 12 or 13 years ago," said Page. "I want to dedicate this to Gary. He started the culture, 12 years ago. There was a difference, there was a change. The environment completely changed.
"I've inherited that, Chris Coleman took it on and took it to another level, and I've inherited that group.
"We're confident going into games now. We don't hope to qualify for the World Cup or Euros now, we believe we can do it, so there's been a massive change in the mentality as well."
Page continued: "I had a difficult decision tonight. I've got people like Harry Wilson and Brennan Johnson, who is going to be a superstar, isn't he. You've got people like him who didn't start tonight. But we had our best 11 on the pitch.
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"It's encouraging, it's good, we're going in the right direction.
"We need to continue to develop these young players that we have done for the last few years, and it's only going to get better for us."