“What can I say?”
Gareth Bale was emotional after Wales lost 2-0 to Iran in the second round of their World Cup campaign, a defeat which makes it unlikely that they ill get through the group.
It was 0-0 at half time, but Iran were the more livelier in the second half, and when the Welsh keeper Wayne Hennessey got sent off for a very rash tackle, then it became a real uphill battle.
Iran pressed and pressed before they finally broke through in injury time with a brilliant goal from Roozbeh Cheshmi.
Then, on the 11th minute of injury time, they managed to get a second when Ramin Rezeain finished off an excellent counter attack.
After the full time whistle, the Wales captain fronted up to the cameras and give an honest assessment of how he feels.
“We are gutted, there is no other way to say it,” the dejected 33-year-old told BBC Sport.
“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 is going to be difficult for us for sure. We will have to see. What can I say? We recover and we have to go again.”
“We have one game left and we have to be positive. We’re still trying to enjoy the occasion as well. It’s going to be difficult, for sure, it depends on the other game and we’ll see.
“I haven’t seen the red card so I don’t know whether it’s the right decision, but, obviously, a red card changes the game completely. We let the first one in and the second one doesn’t matter.”
Former Wales international James Collins has called on Bale’s team-mates to help out more, and give their captain more support.
“You could hear the dejection in Gareth Bale’s voice and some of that might have been in his own performance,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
🗣️ "We're gutted…it's difficult to take"
Gareth Bale expresses huge disappointment at Wales' late defeat.
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— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) November 25, 2022
“He will know he hasn’t performed to the levels we’re used to. But we can’t keep relying on Bale to dig us out, do something magic or score a worldie goal.
“We’re always talking about magic moments and even if he’s not playing well, it’d be a brave man to take Bale off. I’m sure he’d be honest though and say that wasn’t good enough and it wasn’t what we expect.”
Wales have an outside chance of qualifying depending on other results, and have a difficult game against England up next, in what could be there last game of the tournament.
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