Frustration is the key emotion for Page as Wales head for home
ROB Page says frustration will be the overriding emotion for Wales following their World Cup exit as he admitted Gareth Bale is likely to continue to play for his country next year.
Wales suffered a miserable 3-0 loss to England at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium to ensure they finished rock bottom of Group B with just one point to their name from their three fixtures in Qatar.
Prior to the match, Bale admitted he had no desire to retire from international football following the conclusion of the contest with the Three Lions, and boss Page is confident that the captain will be involved in his side’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
“Of course we’ll look back with frustration, but it’s an amazing achievement for that group of players to get here in the first place,” Page said on the tournament. “We’ll build on that, there’s a bigger picture here. We haven’t got the pool of players England have got.
“We’ve got to expose the younger players to these environments and hopefully then, in future, we can continue qualifying.”
And on Bale’s future, the head coach responded: “I don’t think it’ll be the last time you see him in a Welsh jersey.”
Bale was replaced by Brennan Johnson at half-time having been struggling with a hamstring issue in the first-half. Wales conceded three times after the restart as Gareth Southgate’s men sealed top spot in the group with what was ultimately a convincing victory - setting up a last-16 clash with Senegal in the process.
And Page bemoaned Wales’ slow start to the second half after they shut out England in the opening 45.
“I thought, first half, the boys were excellent,” he said. “We changed the shape and I thought they were very disciplined with the defending against a very good England team. They didn’t carve us open, I wasn’t worried at all. If anything I was encouraged by our first-half performance.
“The problem we had was within a few minutes of the second half we were 2-0 down, one with a world-class strike and the second gifted. When you give top teams gifts like that they take them with both hands.”