Wales coach Rob Page admitted his team had fallen well below the standards they set for themselves as defeat to Iran put them on the brink of World Cup elimination.
Page refused to use Wayne Hennessey’s red card – only the third for a goalkeeper in World Cup finals history – as an excuse for the defeat, and said Carlos
Queiroz’s team were well worth their win.
Iran hit both posts and had a goal disallowed before they finally took the lead in the 98th minute through substitute Roozbeh Cheshmi’s long-range strike, with Ramin Rezaeian adding a breakaway second three minutes later.
Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey, so often the architects of Wales’ successes down the years, were both disappointing and they now need a victory over England next Tuesday to have any hope of reaching the knockout stages.
Page even appeared to refer to the England game as Wales’ “final” match of the tournament, underlining how difficult the road ahead is for the Dragons from here.
“This is a hard one to take,” Page said. “I’ve said to them before every game: ‘Go and show the world what you show us every day,’ and that is not a true reflection of that team.
“They got their true rewards today, they deserved that defeat. We fell well below the standards that got us to the World Cup, if we’d met those standards we’d have been alright. And if you do that in top competitions, you get punished.”
Asked about the England game, Page said: “We want to finish the competition on a high. It’s out of our hands for going through, but we want to finish with a good performance and a win. We’re low at the moment, but we’ll get them back up tomorrow for a tough game to finish with.”
Bale: We’re gutted but we must recover
Wales captain Gareth Bale said on BBC:
“It’s gutting, we’re gutted. There’s no other way to say it.
“We fought until the last second but it’s one of those things, it’s difficult to take, but we have to recover and go again.
“We have to pick ourselves up straight away. It’s going to be difficult, but we have one game left in the group and have to look at every positive and still try to enjoy the occasion.
On Wayne Hennessey’s red card, he added: “I haven’t seen it so I don’t know (if it was a red) but the red card changes the game completely. Obviously, we let the first one in and the second goal doesn’t matter.
“We recover and we have to go again.”
Analysis: Welsh reliance on Bale exposed
Sky Sports’ Nick Wright:
“This was a historic game for Gareth Bale, his 110th international appearance seeing him overtake Chris Gunter as Wales’ most-capped player, but it is not one he will remember fondly.
“Bale had yet again delivered when his country needed him most against USA, winning and converting the penalty which clinched their 1-1 draw at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.
“But there was to be no repeat of those heroics against Iran, with Bale unable to exert his usual influence, the 33-year-old limited to 36 touches, the fewest of any player to complete the game.
“In the end, the performance and result exposed Wales’ reliance on their talisman. Kieffer Moore was a useful outlet at times, but when Bale does not spark, neither do his team-mates.
“That is not to say he should be blamed, of course. In fact, other senior players were similarly poor, with Aaron Ramsey clearly lacking fitness in central midfield and goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey punished for the lapse that led to his red card.
“But inevitably the spotlight ends up on Bale. Wales will need more from him if they are to beat England and upset the odds to claim a place in the knockout stages, but in the long-term they must find other solutions, and a new generation capable of building on the progress he has driven.”
Wales’ winless streak – Opta stats
Wales (D2 L5) have now gone seven games without a victory in all competitions for the first time since May 2003.
Iran have scored four goals already at the 2022 World Cup, twice as many goals as they managed in any previous edition of the competition.
Wales conceded more than one goal in a World Cup match for the first time ever.
Wales’ Wayne Hennessey was just the third goalkeeper to be sent off at the World Cup, after Gianluca Pagliuca for Italy against Norway in 1994 and Itumeleng Khune for South Africa against Uruguay in 2010.
Roozbeh Cheshmi’s opener for Iran, on 97 minutes 56 seconds, was the latest winning goal ever scored at the World Cup, excluding extra-time, since exact goal times are available for the competition (since 1966).
Gareth Bale made his 110th senior appearance for Wales, become the outright most capped player for his country, surpassing Chris Gunter (109).
Quiroz hails Iran’s character | ‘Players found first days of World Cup tough’
The win for Iran means their match against the United States – which would always have been highly charged given the political history between the nations – could now be winner-takes-all for a place in the last 16.
Queiroz felt too much external pressure was placed on his players ahead of the England game.
The team have become a political lightning rod for the turmoil in Iran, with those who are pro-regime criticising them for not singing the anthem before the England match and protesters attacking them for not doing enough to highlight the plight of women in the country.
The Portuguese coach criticised the Iranians in the stands at the England match
who booed his team, but was much more complimentary about the fans after the Wales match.
“The crowd deserve a special word today,” he said. “It was a joy, it was happiness, it was drama, I love this game when things are this way.”
He hailed the character of his team, adding: “It was really very emotional because we rebounded from a difficult situation.”
Cheshmi admitted the team had found the first few days of the World Cup extremely tough.
“I should say that if the pressure was football-related that would be acceptable but if the players were under pressure unfairly that would not be right,” he said via an interpreter.
“Players were judged abruptly and received non-football pressure. All the team helped each other. I scored the goal but the team did the work.”
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