Darlow encouraged by Wales competing with World Cup-bound Ghana

Wales goalkeeper Karl Darlow believes drawing with a Ghana team that are World Cup-bound represented a good marker for Craig Bellamy’s team to lay down.

Lewis Koumas equalised four minutes into second-half stoppage time on Tuesday as Wales rescued a 1-1 draw against the Black Stars, who had gone ahead through Caleb Yirenkyi.

Having missed out on World Cup qualification following a penalty shoot-out defeat to Bosnia-Herzegovina in March, Wales will take on Romania in another friendly on Saturday.

And while Leeds United shot-stopper Darlow would much rather be preparing for a trip to North America, he believes Wales can take heart from playing on the front foot against one of Africa’s best sides.

“I think we probably deserved the win, to be honest with you,” Darlow told BBC Match of the Day Wales.

“With the way that we played in the first half, we dominated possession and created a lot of chances, so I think if we had gone one or two goals up in the first half it could have been a comfortable result.

“It was unfortunate for the goal, it just deflected off Joe (Rodon) and hit the post and it’s gone in. So it was unfortunate and on another day, we would keep a clean sheet.

“I think we can all be pleased as a group with what we’ve done tonight. It’s not easy when we have to play a friendly game when we’d rather be at the World Cup. 

“We played a side who are going to the World Cup and they’re a very good side. But we played really well tonight, and I think we can be pleased with that.”

Wales had 18 shots to Ghana’s 11 over the course of the game and racked up 1.86 expected goals to their visitors’ 1.3 xG, though they only hit the target on three occasions, with Ghana doing so five times.

However, Wales have now failed to win any of their first three matches of a calendar year (D3) for the first time since 2016 under Chris Coleman (D1 L2).

In addition, they have won just one of their last 12 friendlies (D7 L4), failing to win any of their last six since a 4-0 victory against Gibraltar in October 2023.