Guardian criticised for ‘negative spin’ on Wales football win

Welsh football fans have criticised The Guardian for its ‘negative spin’ on Wales’ victory against Finland.

Wales beat the Finns 3-1 to secure promotion to the top tier of the Nations League, and some Red Wall supporters weren’t best pleased with what they saw as a minimisation of the achievement in a match report published by the London-based news organisation.

Harry Wilson, Daniel James and Kieffer Moore were all on the score sheet at the Cardiff City Stadium. Teemu Pukki was able to pull one back for Finland, but the win was a relatively comfortable on in the end.

Winning promotion into League A means that Wales be facing Europe’s elite on a regular basis when the next edition of the competition comes around.

The result also secures pole position for a spot in the play-offs for the 2022 World Cup, should Wales fail to reach the tournament through the qualification group.

The headline of the article in The Guardian read: “Wales climb into Nations League top tier with victory over 10-man Finland”.

Some Wales supporters took a dim view of emphasising that Finland went down to ten men in the headline.

It was also pointed out by some fans that the headline of a Guardian story about the England’s 4-0 victory against Iceland did not mention that the Nordic country had gone down to 10 men.

 

‘Victory’

The Welsh football Twitter account, Ffwtol, said: “Finland had 11 men. One was sacrificed when he stopped a goal. His own decision.”

Llefain, a Welsh Twitter account located in the Republic of Wales, said: “Well. That’s an oddly negative and minimising spin there. Thanks. ‘Wales earn place in Nations League top tier after victory over Finland’. That wasn’t even hard to write.”

The Guardian article went on to say: “Harry Wilson and Daniel James scored either side of the interval after Jere Uronen was sent off early at the Cardiff City Stadium. The Norwich striker Teemu Pukki pulled one back for Finland in the second half but Wales made certain of victory when Kieffer Moore headed home from James’s cross with six minutes to play.

“Finland needed to win to deprive Wales of top spot in Group B4, but they were forced to play with 10 men for 78 minutes after Uronen hauled down Wilson with the forward through on goal. Uronen had failed to deal with Danny Ward’s long goal-kick and Spanish referee Jesus Gil Manzano was quick to brandish his red card.”