Rhian Wilkinson Calls for Better Support ahead of Nations League Matches
Wales Women's Football Head Coach Rhian Wilkinson urges fans to "get behind your team" as the side face Denmark at the Cardiff City Stadium on April 4.
Off the back of the historic qualification for the European Championships that Wilkinson's side achieved at the back end of 2024, Wales face Denmark and Sweden in a pair of Nations League games in April. With the full squad announced, the Canadian coach is looking to get her squad of players ready for the summer.
With the return of key figure Rachel Rowe, there is an opportunity for the side to kick on from a 1-1 draw versus Sweden earlier in the year in Wrexham's Stōk Cae Ras. The first fixture is to be hosted in the Welsh capital and is a final opportunity for Cardiff-based fans to watch the team play before the summer.
Wilkinson urged fans to come along to the game and watch her side take on Denmark. She said:
"We've got these two last games. To anyone, to the Red Wall, to all those that were out in North Macedonia or watching it on television, this is a footballing nation... get behind your team."
Doubling down on this sentiment, the Wales coach suggested that it might be one of the final times to watch the talented Jess Fishlock play for her nation:
"Jess (Fishlock) is the fulcrum, the focus of this team. She is incredibly important.
"I don't know when she'll retire, but she will not play forever. And if you're someone who hasn't had the privilege of seeing someone like her play, get out to Cardiff. These are things we've almost taken for granted.
"I think those that didn't go out to see a Gareth Bale when he was playing, regret it. Don't regret this. She is a very special player who is really delivering every single game she plays in."
Confidence is strong amongst the group with some strong results against tough teams on route to Euros qualification and subsequently in the Nation's League. But this is not solely as a result of their success, as Wilkinson explains, but a result of the freedom that comes with no longer having a history defining achievement to work towards.
"Qualification itself is almost like lifting a massive weight off this team. Something that they've gotten so close to doing and now they've done it.
"It's great because we're now starting to see a freedom in the play that maybe I've had to fight harder to get out of the players.
"And now it's just there because they have done it. They've made history. Their legacy of being that first team is forever cemented in the history books of Welsh football history."
The Euros qualification, no doubt occupies a greater importance for the Dragons, with the Nation's League representing a chance for the side to prepare by playing top sides, as well as a run out in front of their home crowd. But of the 26 players preparing only 23 will be able to make the trip of a lifetime in the summer.
This represents a difficult set of decisions to be made by the coach in charge ahead of the summer, and the 42-year-old explains how she feels about this tough prospect:
"I'll absolutely have to make one of the hardest decisions of my coaching career when I name a Euro squad.
"That is the hardest part of my job. It's terrible. I will have sleepless nights about it because all these women have given everything to do this
"Equally, that is the dream of a coach is to make sure that that decision is hard to do because it means that my entire squad is performing and putting me in a position where I've got to make hard choices.
"I'm not looking forward to it. But I'll have the sleepless nights a little bit further down the road"
The Wales National Team will travel to Gothenburg following their game at the Cardiff City stadium where they face the world number six, Sweden, at the Gamla Ullevi stadium on Tuesday 8 April.