Liechtenstein v Wales: Piet Cremers steps up in Bellamy absence

Cremers will become the youngest coach to lead a Uefa national team in a competitive match since Terry Neill was in charge of Northern Ireland, taking over on a player-manager basis for a Euro 1972 qualifier against the USSR in October 1971 aged 29, five months and five days.

But while Cremers may be relatively young in coaching terms, he is not lacking in the top-level experiences he hopes will see him become a manager in his own right one day.

The Dutchman, who has also worked at Brentford, originally joined Manchester City as a match analyst for the under-23s before his promotion to Guardiola’s set-up as chief analyst in 2018, playing a role in four Premier League title wins

Upon leaving his role as head of analysis and insights at City in 2022, Cremers took up the position as assistant coach under Kompany at Turf Moor – where he was integral in the club’s 2023 promotion into the Premier League as champions with a points total of 101.

And it was at Burnley where Cremers forged a close relationship with Bellamy, who also worked under Kompany.

Indeed, one of Bellamy’s first key decisions following his appointment as Wales head coach in the summer of 2024 was to appoint Cremers to his staff.

When asked in November 2024 what Cremers added to his team, Bellamy replied: “Everything. The year we had at Burnley was down to him.

“We murdered the league, and it was that. It hadn’t been done before.

“Piet really pushed us towards this way. Vinny was always very intelligent about sounding out the best people.

“He brought Piet into our world then and it was just like ‘wow’, he moved so many different areas for us.”