BOSS PAGE: WE DIDN’T DESERVE ANYTHING

years. Page (above) said: “They deserved the win.

“Before I made the changes, they hit the post, the bar, they had a goal disallowed in the first half.

“I’m not going to sit here and say we deserved anything out of that game. We weren’t in the game at all.

“We can carry one or two players if they have an off day, but when the whole team aren’t at it, there’s only going to be one outcome.

“We fell well below the standards we’ve set in recent months and when you do that in top competitions, you get punished. We’ve got to get on with it. We can’t sit around crying about it.

“We have an opportunity to put it right. We want to give our supporters something to cheer about.

“They have shown massive commitment to come over here and it’s really disappointing to have given them that performance.”

Wales skipper Gareth Bale said: “We’re gutted, there’s no other way to say it. We fought until the last second and we need to go again.

“We are all gutted but we have to pick ourselves up straight away. It’s going to be difficult for us for sure. We’ll have to see.

“What can I say? We recover and we have to go again.”

Hennessey was initially shown a yellow card for his reckless challenge, but that was upgraded to a red after a VAR review.

Substitute keeper Danny Ward came on but conceded twice, to leave Wales on the brink of going out.

Jubilant Iran coach Carlos Queiroz said: “This is just the beginning, but we need to finish the job.

“It was a wonderful day for us. I don’t have words to say thank you to the players. They were brilliant, they deserve all the respect.

“We showed the football we have inside our souls.”