Wales are exactly where they had hoped they would be post-Gareth Bale
Eight matches over eight months, but the job to reach Euro 2024 goes on. Gruelling and energy-sapping at times, yet there's no time to dwell on what might have been. 'What could still be' is the task ahead.
Wales boss Rob Page will next week get his coaches and staff together as they plan for March's play-off semi-final. The Wales boss has already made it clear that's happening. Before then Page barely rests, less than an hour after full-time on Tuesday night he was anxious to keep going, keep on the move, keep the momentum.
"I'm off to Switzerland," he told me as we grabbed a word in a corridor at the Cardiff City Stadium. He wants to know as soon as possible whether he's to prepare Wales to face Iceland, Finland or Ukraine. If Page had his way, he wouldn't be waiting until March; that semi-final play-off would be happening in two weeks' time.
Is this the route to the Euros that always was to await Wales? Yes, Wales created a chance to qualify automatically and it's the results against Armenia home and away that scuppered that, but it was interesting to listen to the Wales boss a couple of times over the past few days weave into discussion what he and his staff had forecast before even a ball was kicked in anger during this campaign.
They looked at the eight matches they would play and made a realistic, and I'm sure they'd say pragmatic, assessment of how each game would pan out - three points there, a draw there, probably an away defeat etc.
Page said Wales points wise were pretty much where was forecast, while acknowledging underachievement against Armenia, but overachieving against Croatia.
What have Wales learned about themselves in their first qualifying campaign in over a decade without Gareth Bale? Bale was such a
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