England drove me to drink
COLEMAN ADMITS HE BROKE BOOZE BAN AFTER DEFEAT AT EUROS... AND DOESN’T WANT SAME EXPERIENCE TONIGHT
CHRIS COLEMAN says Wales’ Euro 2016 defeat by England drove him to drink.
And he has urged his players not to repeat the same mistakes in tonight’s Aviva Stadium showdown with the Republic of Ireland that forced him to break Wales’ Euros booze ban.
Boss Coleman was “absolutely gutted” by his team’s 2-1 group-stage defeat by England in France and needed something strong to drown his sorrows.
Coleman said: “It was a dry camp, we were together seven weeks. No alcohol. Staff or players. But I had a double Irish whiskey by myself – sneaky one, out on the balcony.
“I was devastated. Not because it was England. But we are at a tournament, it is the second game, we had a point in the bag and with four points we were going through really. But we let it slip.
“You can’t go back, it is gone. So I was absolutely gutted. Everyone was.
“It is one of the few times the players played the occasion. We went 1-0 up and then we wished our life away, rather than just enjoying those moments.
“We thought, ‘We’ve got to win this game by hook or by crook’, but didn’t perform in the second half.
“We can’t go to Ireland, sit back for 90 minutes and wish our lives away, hoping that we nick one, because we have done that before.
“When you’re up against a team that’s very similar to you, you’ve got to go on the front foot, go for it and try and perform.
“We can’t miss the game – we did that against England. It was a British derby, there was so much surrounding it and we got sucked into that.”
Wales’ qualification hopes are in the balance with Coleman’s side third in Group D, four points off leaders Ireland.
Coleman is not thinking about his future while qualification is still possible, but reiterated he expects this “is my last campaign”. And he is “desperate” to go out on a high by leading Wales to a first World Cup since 1958.
He said: “Just because we went to France, it doesn’t mean Russia is less important. I’m desperate to do it again.
“It’s the only word I can use – I’m desperate to go back and be in the middle of that type of pressure. I can’t describe how it felt and I absolutely want that again.”