Gunter hits out at ‘joke’ format after Wales loss
CHRIS Gunter has called the format of Euro 2020 a “joke” and accused UEFA of letting down Wales.
Robert Page’s side bowed out of the cross-continent competition in the last-16 on Saturday following a 4-0 defeat to Denmark in Amsterdam.
It was Denmark’s first game outside their Copenhagen home, while Wales had travelled over 5,300 miles after playing group games in Baku and Rome.
“Written off before a bag of air was kicked, 3,000 miles from home,” Gunter, Wales’ most capped men’s player, wrote on Instagram.
“Every nation had fans wherever they went, apart from the 350 who broke government rules and bank accounts to be there, you and us deserved more from this joke set up of a tournament, but who said life was fair?”
Having had little support in Baku and Rome due to coronavirus restrictions, Wales were then told by the Dutch Government that their supporters were banned from entering Holland.
Denmark supporters, however, were allowed in and a small band of Wales fans, who had managed to get into the Johan Cruyff Arena, were vastly outnumbered in a 14,645 crowd.
“Suck it up, keep your chin up, we’ll be all right, trust me on that,” said Charlton Athletic defender Gunter, who won his 102nd cap in the final group game against Italy.
“We did not deserve that scoreline but who said life was fair? Have a cry but then smile that we were dining at the top table yet again.
“And smile even more that we’ll be back and we’ll be the ones with the full stadium, belting out our anthem. That we all deserve.”
Meanwhile, Gareth Bale has promised never to quit Wales as long as he is playing football.
Bale walked out on a TV interview when he was asked about his future moments after the defeat by Denmark.
There was speculation in the build-up to the tournament that the 31-year-old Real Madrid forward may be contemplating retirement.
Bale said at the end of his Tottenham Hotspur loan spell last month that he knows where his future lies after this summer but claimed it would “cause chaos” if he revealed it.
Wales have started their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign and the finals in Qatar are only 17 months away.
Bale – who is four appearances short of becoming only the second Welshman to win 100 caps – suggested after the Denmark defeat that he wants to prolong his international career.
“I want to continue to play,” Bale told S4C shortly after terminating a previous interview when asked about his international future.
“People ask stupid questions all the time but I obviously love playing for Wales.
“I will play for Wales until the day that I stop playing football.”
Bale has one left year on his Real contract and the return of Carlo Ancelotti to the Bernabeu is considered as increasing the chances of him staying in Spain and seeing out his contract.
Ancelotti was in charge when Bale joined Real from Spurs in September 2013 and the pair won the Champions League together later that season.
Bale called Ancelotti a “great manager” after his appointment was confirmed at the start of the month and said that he would hold talks with the Italian about his future after Euro 2020.
The Wales captain had a fractious relationship with previous Real boss Zinedine Zidane and returned to Spurs last season, scoring 16 goals.
Wales’ World Cup qualifying campaign resumes in September with a double-header away to Belarus and at home to Estonia.
“I guess we’ll have to look back and learn from this experience and take it forward,” Bale added.
“We’ve just started the World Cup campaign and we were saying in there now we need to take this experience into there.
“I feel we have a very good way of playing when we play well.
“We just need to keep that confidence high and I think we can qualify for the next World Cup.”