Page: Our new stars can help fill Bale’s boots
WALES have proved there is life after Gareth Bale thanks to their remarkable draw in Croatia, says Rob Page.
Their former talisman delivered a massive shock earlier this year when he retired from football with immediate effect.
It brought to an end a wonderful career during which he conquered Europe with Real Madrid and guided Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 before helping steer them to their first World Cup in 64 years when they qualified for Qatar in 2022.
Bale’s decision to exit the stage was closely followed by Joe Allen – another hero of France in 2016 – who announced he was retiring from international duty.
It left Wales with huge holes to fill, but Page believes the spirit shown by his side in Split on Saturday evening can push them to new heights.
“There is life after Gareth, absolutely,” Page said.
“Gareth’s moments of individual brilliance will forever be remembered by Wales supporters.
“But was he at an age at the end, where he could press for 95 minutes? Probably not, I know I couldn’t at his age when I was playing.
“Now we have the opportunity to get young, energetic players on the pitch and still have a go with half-an-hour left.
“Wes Burns, Sorba Thomas and Tom Bradshaw didn’t stop running, they gave us the chance to freshen things up, up top.”
Meanwhile, Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic blamed the dropping of points on his side’s failure to kill off the game at 1-0.
He said: “It was a shock in the last second of the match.
“We dominated most of the game but if you didn’t score the second goal this can happen.
“Wales are dangerous from set-pieces and they scored from one. Connor Roberts can throw it quite far and that’s how we conceded the goal.
“But as far as I can tell it was their only shot on goal.”