Wales will be looking to continue their excellent run of recent form when they take on the Netherlands in an international friendly on Friday.

Wonderful Wales

The last few months have been a whirlwind for the Welsh national side as securing their place in next summer’s European Championships which will be their first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup.

Manager Chris Coleman has managed miracles to pull the Wales through to France and have become the 15th best international side in the world according to the FIFA rankings.

Bosnian slip-up

The dragons looked like they had fell at the final hurdle when they suffered a 2-0 defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the second-last qualifier but other results in the group ensured their passage.

They rounded off the qualifying process in style with a routine 2-0 win over Andorra which continued their excellent run of form having just lost once in the six matches in 2015 with four of those been victories.

Hopeless Holland

It has all been downhill for the Dutch since former manager Louis Van Gaal departed for Manchester United ust after the 2014 World Cup.

Danny Blind has sine took over after Guus Hiddink’s spell but has failed to inspire the side as they failed to qualify for next summer’s tournament despite having some of the best talent on the continent.

Worrying form

Their recent form has been their most worrying statistic as they won just one in their last four qualifying matches.

That one victory was a narrow 2-1 victory over minnows Kazakhstan back in October but suffered defeats to Czech Republic, Turkey and a 1-0 loss to Iceland in their last game and with Wales’ recent form it doesn’t stand them in good stead for the win.

Team news

The biggest blow for Coleman’s side will be the absence of arguably their two talismen Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey.

The Real Madrid forward is still recovering from an injury ahead of the El Clasico while Ramsey continues to recover from a hamstring injury that he picked up while playing for Arsenal.

This will give great opportunities for the likes of Sam Vokes and Andy King to prove to Coleman that they deserve a ticket on the plane to France. Bournemouth’s Shaun McDonald has also been handed that opportunity as he was called into the squad on Monday after David Cotterill withdrew.

The big decision for the visiting manager will be if he will use Memphis Depay who branded not a team player as he planned to leave the Manchester United winger out of the squad all together.

Arjen Robben is expected to make a return after a lengthy spell on the side-lines while Daley Blind could be given a role in the midfield different to his defensive duties at Old Trafford.

Wales will welcome the Netherlands to the Millennium Stadium on Friday, November 13 with kick-off at 19:45PM BST.

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.