CARDIFF — The pre-match atmosphere at Wales home games must rival anything in world football. Nothing stirs like a throaty folk song; Yma o Hyd has become a celebration of the rise of a national football team that slept for too long. Hear the Red Wall roar its defiance – “Despite everyone and everything, we’re still here” and, sat in the stands, even you think you could win a major tournament play-off if asked. I probably won’t be, not least because I’m not Welsh.

This is a symbol of Wales’ reconnection with its national team because, like everything that came with it, it is drenched in the desire to use patriotism as fuel: Welsh language, Welsh identity, Welsh pride, Welsh football. It has brought a generation with it and taken care to include them all. I’m not saying that you can tell t

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