Welsh national team head coach Rob Page praised South Korea’s performance in the friendly. In a press conference after the friendly against South Korea at Cardiff City Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on Aug. 8 (KST), Page reflected on the game and called South Korea a “world-class team.”
Page’s comments came while discussing Jordan James, who made his Welsh senior national team debut in the match. “It was a good debut for him. He got some good experience against a world-class team.”
Wales are fourth out of five nations in Group D in Euro 2024 qualifying with four points. With first and second place in each group earning a direct ticket to the knockout stages, the Welsh are five points adrift of first-placed Turkiye and two points behind second-placed Armenia, who have played one game less. Furthermore, Croatia, who have the same four points as Wales, have played two games less. With four games to go, Wales need three points against last-place Latvia to keep their hopes of a second-place finish alive.
According to UEFA rules, nations in odd-numbered groups must fill in the gaps when other nations in their group play. In Group D, which has five nations, Croatia and Latvia play on the 9th, followed by Turkiye and Armenia. This meant that Wales, who play Latvia on the 12th, needed to fill a day off, which is how South Korea came to be.
Page, who had said prior to the game that he would be resting a number of players against South Korea in preparation for the Latvia game, went against his word and started Brennan Jones, Joe Roden and Ben Davies.
“(The team) is building confidence heading into Monday’s game and shaking off the disappointment of camp in June,” Page said.
“We’ve taken some positive steps. We’ve had meetings with the defense over the past week about the goals we conceded.”
On the day, Wales and South Korea played to a 0-0 draw. However, while South Korea had 61% of the possession and only four shots on goal, Wales had 11 shots on goal and two on target.
“We kept a clean sheet against a technically good team with one of the best strikers in the world (Son Heung-min),” he said, adding, “Keeper Moore’s header could have given us a 1-0 win.” Moore, who came on as a substitute, hit the post with a header in the 21st minute of the second half.
“You saw the reaction of the players,” Page said. I’m happy with that. Proud of our defense. We got our identity back. It was the kind of performance we had against Croatia and Latvia in March.” 카지노
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