Wales winger, Gareth Bale believes that his national team would have gotten at least a point at the hands of the Netherlands if the players had learned dark arts.
The 33-year-old winger who will be without a club from July 1, 2022, after his contract with Real Madrid expires, mentioned this while referring to the Netherlands’ late-minute winner.
On Wednesday, June 8, 2022, the Netherlands national team visited Cardiff for the 2022-2023 Nations League A4 match against Wales. The hosts were expected to get at least a point from the match based on their recent good home run but the reverse was the case.
The first half of the keenly contested match ended in a goalless draw. In the 50th minute of the second half, the Netherlands were able to turn things around thanks to a goal from Teun Koopmeiners.
In the additional 2nd minute after regular time, Wales got the equalizer through a header from Rhys Norrington-Davies. The equalizer came less than 17 minutes after coach Rob Page introduced Gareth Bale into the match.
Unfortunately for the World Cup-bound side, Wales could not end the game in a 1-1 draw. Towards the 4th additional minute, Frenkie de Jong sprinted through three Welsh players in midfield to set up an attack that led to the winner.
Wout Weghorst sealed the victory for the Netherlands late in injury time to end Wales’ unbeaten run in Cardiff to the disappointment of Gareth Bale who wished that one of his teammates had stopped the run of Frenkie de Jong.
To prevent Wales from experiencing such a late-minute winner, Bale who is the only British player to win five UEFA Champions League, said his teammates must learn how to bring players down when necessary.
“It was a difficult game as we didn’t have a full-strength squad but the boys that came in worked hard”, Gareth Bale told S4C after the 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands on Wednesday.
“To get the equalizer and to then concede was gutting but we have to learn the dark arts to take him down. We need to use this as a learning experience. If that happens again in the World Cup, we need to do what we need to do.
“We are in Group A as we deserve to be here and to test ourselves against the world’s best. If you are in the tier below you probably get away with that late chance but when you play the top teams and don’t do the things you need to do you get punished.
“It’s hard to take but we are a young team.”
Recall that Wales suffered the 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands, over a week after suffering a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Poland in their first Nations League match of the season.
“I feel the same as I did after Poland in that I’m disappointed we haven’t got a draw”, Wales coach Page said after Wednesday’s defeat. “It was a great opportunity but we showed naivety in seeing the game out. That’s a valuable lesson to learn.
“That is the benefit of the night in that we have to learn from those mistakes with the younger players knowing they need to be ruthless in the middle of the park to make a foul to see the game out. That’s what disappointed me tonight but I can’t fault the players. I’m really proud of them against a very good Dutch team.
“We weren’t streetwise enough to get the job done.
“The Poland game and this game have both been influenced by a final in between – that’s the only difficulty we’ve had. I had to pick a team against Poland with one eye on the final and then pick a team today because of the final, so if you had a squad of 50 players, no problem, you can pick another 11 but we don’t have that luxury.”
2 games, 6 points! 🟠✔️#NationsLeague #WALNED pic.twitter.com/niGsRT5Zq7
— OnsOranje (@OnsOranje) June 9, 2022
