It was a short but sweet experience for Wales as they bowed out of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar with a 3-0 defeat against England in their final group game. While they finished at the bottom of Group B, they still had a lot to take from the campaign.
Gareth Bale started the game for Wales against England but succumbed to a hamstring injury. However he has dismissed the claims of this being his last international in Welsh colours. “I’ll keep going as long as I can and as long as I’m wanted,” the Wales captain told BBC Sport.
The Dragons started their campaign with a 1-1 draw against the United States as Bale scored their first goal in 65 years from the spot. However the campaign got derailed from there as they lost consecutive matches against Iran and now to England to bow out of the event.
The former Real Madrid star shared how it is disappointing for their campaign to end on such a low note. But he is looking forward to the Euros qualifying campaign in a few months.
“It’s a difficult moment now. But we go again. We have a qualifying campaign [for the European Championship] starting in March and we have a few months to get away from international football now, which is obviously disappointing.”
Wales had to wait 64 years to qualify for the World Cup and it was a great moment for their fans to come down to Qatar and back their team. However on pitch they were that great as they only earned a point against the United States and had two defeats against Iran and neighbors England.
While there is massive disappointment from the outcome, Bale feels it is a moment of pride for the nation to come to this level after so long. He feels that this experience will take them a long way in future. “Everyone is disappointed. I think we’re all proud of what we’ve achieved to get here. We have to look at how far we’ve come.
“Of course, we would have loved to have gone past the group, but football is difficult. Teams go through good runs and bad runs, and we didn’t quite live up to our expectations this tournament. But we’ll take massive experience from it and going forward we need to look at how far we’ve come,” Bale concluded.
