Bale, Lampard and Giggs: Harry Wilson is taking his cue from the very best with Wales and Derby

As a symbol of Wales’s ability to prosper without Gareth Bale, it was pretty much perfect.

Ryan Giggs’s men were toiling in their Nations League game against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on Tuesday when Connor Roberts won a free-kick just outside the Irish box, a little to the right of centre, in the 58th minute.

It would have been Bale territory if the Real Madrid star had not been sidelined. Instead Harry Wilson took charge, elegantly steering a shot over the wall and into the net with the inside of his left foot.

The 21-year-old Derby County loanee was the first player other than Bale to have scored a direct free-kick in a competitive game for Wales since Aaron Ramsey in October 2009. His goal brought Wales a 1-0 win that leaves them within sight of promotion to Nations League A.

If Wilson’s outrageous 30-yard free-kick in Derby’s stunning Carabao Cup success over Manchester United last month brought to mind the sort of erratically swerving knuckleball strike with which Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo have confounded opposition goalkeepers in recent years, his goal at the Aviva Stadium was an altogether more precise effort.

“You have your own technique when it comes to dead-ball situations,” he said. “You see players like Bale and Ronaldo who try to get that movement and then you have other players like [David] Beckham when he was playing who have got that whip.

“I think it's important to use the technique which you feel is most suited. I tried to go for the curler because I felt it was a bit too close for the laces.”

So will he be muscling Bale out of the way if Wales win a free-kick within shooting distance against Denmark next month?

"I'll be putting my name forward, but I think he is still at the front of the queue and rightly so,” Wilson said.

As a young, left-footed Welsh attacker, Wilson could scarcely ask for better role models than Bale and Giggs at international level. And for advice on scoring goals from midfield, he need only turn to his club manager, Frank Lampard.

"When you are playing for a manager who had a career like he has, you have to take as much as you can off him,” Wilson said.

"When he is pulling you aside in training or anytime he says something to you then you have to take it on board and try and improve.”

While Wilson says his focus at club level is squarely on Derby’s Championship promotion push, his ultimate goal is to prove himself worthy of first-team involvement at parent club Liverpool. Jürgen Klopp showed his faith in the Wrexham-born winger by awarding him a five-year contract in the summer and Wilson is confident that if he continues his progress at Pride Park, he will get his chance at Anfield.

“I have messaged Klopp a few times. I know he is keeping an eye on the loan players to see how they are doing. I am fully focused on getting that promotion,” he said.

“It is always important to play week in, week out. You feel fit, you hit a rhythm and you feel strong. Hopefully it will stand me in good stead for going back to Liverpool.”

Wilson celebrated his goal against United by showing five fingers to the Old Trafford crowd in reference to the number of European Cups that stand gleaming in the Anfield trophy room, prompting Giggs to quip that he would have to fine him.

"He spoke about fining me, but he hasn't got round to it yet,” Wilson said. “I'm hoping that goal may make him forget about it.”