Can Wales make history with first major tournament appearance?

The attendance at the Cardiff City Stadium for Wales' win over Slovakia was Wales women's third largest crowd for an international match

Two games from history.

Wales' women are now two games away from reaching a first major tournament after reaching the Euro 2025 play-off final, where they will face Republic of Ireland.

Wales did it the hard way with a 3-2 aggregate win over Slovakia that saw them come back from 2-0 down to win the tie at the Cardiff City Stadium after extra time.

Can Wales now take the next step to unchartered territory?

How can Wales make history?

Though Wales' men's team have now qualified for four major finals, including reaching the last four of Euro 2016, Wales' women have never managed to take their place on football's biggest stage.

Wales are now two games from clearing their final hurdle as they face Republic of Ireland in the play-off final.

Wales will host Ireland on Friday, 29 November at the Cardiff City Stadium before the second-leg in Dublin at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, 3 December with the winner of the two-legged tie qualifying outright for the finals in Switzerland in July 2025.

Ireland will enter the tie as favourites, being the higher seeded nation - and therefore playing at home in the second leg - as they currently sit five spots above Wales in the world rankings.

However, Wales did win 2-0 in an international friendly the last time they travelled to Dublin in March, shortly before the appointment of Rhian Wilkinson as Wales boss.

However, former Wales forward Gwennan Harries says she expects an extremely tough test against Eileen Gleeson's team.

"They’re (Ireland) full of confidence and they’ve reached the finals of the last World Cup so they’ll feed off that confidence," Harries told Dros Frecwast.

"But Slovakia are a much better side than Georgia, if you look at the rankings. Slovakia were a tough team to break down.

"But Wales will have to go up a few levels to compete with Ireland."

Jess Fishlock is Wales' most-capped player and top goalscorer with 46 goals

An epic performance from a 'sporting icon'

We are running out of ways to pay tribute to the performances of Jess Fishlock, Wales women's greatest ever player and someone who manager Rhian Wilkinson rightly described after the Slovakia match as "a sporting icon."

A list of Wales players - male or female - who have made a similar impact on the game in Wales would be extremely small, containing names only such as John Charles, Gareth Bale and arguably the likes of Cliff Jones, Neville Southall and Ian Rush, the absolute best of the best to pull on a red shirt.

Now aged 37 and having won titles in five different countries, Fishlock has taken her performances for Wales to another level in this qualification campaign as she strains every muscle and gives everything she has in pursuit of her ultimate footballing dream, reaching a major tournament with Wales.

Fishlock has always been the key component of this side but she's taken that up a notch further in a Euro 2025 qualifying campaign where she has put the hopes of a nation on her back.

Five goals in six qualifiers as Wales reached the play-off stages, but that was Fishlock at full fitness.

Lest we forget, Fishlock came into the Slovakia tie having not played a minute of football in six weeks after suffering a leg injury playing for Seattle.

Only fit enough to play 30 minutes in Poprad, Fishlock came off the bench with the score at 2-0 and produced a perfect pass to allow Ffion Morgan to score the goal that gave Wales hope for the return leg in Cardiff.

And when push came to shove? Fishlock scored Wales' opener to send the tie into extra time and then despite being almost out on her feet, produced the pass to send Kayleigh Barton clear to set-up Wales' winner deep into extra time.

"Our performance was epitomised by Jess Fishlock who collapsed at the end of the game and had nothing left to give,” Wilkinson reflected.

“She is the ultimate team player. She said if she had nothing left to take her off. I said 'I will do what needs to be done.' And I did that. I had to leave her on. She is phenomenal. I don’t take off Jess Fishlock in a game like that.”

The image of Fishlock flat-out, having given Wales all she could and more, perfectly illustrated her utter desperation to drag Wales onto the world stage.

Alice Griffiths played for Cardiff Met and Charlton Athletic before joining Southampton

An unsung hero emerges from Ingle's absence

The need for Fishlock to carry this Wales side was manifested by losing key midfielder and former captain Sophie Ingle, who will miss several months of action after undergoing ACL surgery.

Ingle has been a virtual ever-present for Wales for over a decade, a key member of the squad, a leader and a cap centurion who has been instrumental to everything Wales have done.

It seemed like an almost impossible task to replace Ingle, but an unlikely hero emerged for Wales in the form of 23-year old Southampton midfielder, Alice Griffiths.

Having won nine caps in six-years since her Wales debut, there was little to suggest Griffiths would be able to step into Ingle's place, but her introduction as a second-half substitute in Poprad went a long way to transforming the contest and helping Wales to leave with a 2-1 defeat, rather than something more substantial.

Griffiths was selected from the start in the return leg at the Cardiff City Stadium and excelled in the biggest game of her career, complimenting captain Angharad James and adding a solidity to Wales that was missing in Slovakia.

“I thought the middle of the pitch, Alice Griffiths had a great performance," Harries reflected.