"It really shocked me," says Wales manager Rober Page after 4-2 loss to Armenia
Jun 17, 2023
Cardiff [Wales], June 17 : Armenia defeated Wales 4-2 on Saturday in the Cardiff City Stadium in the UEFA EURO Qualifiers. After the defeat, Wales's manager Robert Page said, "I didn't see that coming, it's really shocked me," as per Sky Sports.
Wales is now in danger to drop out of the qualification for UEFA EURO 2024 after losing to Armenia.
Wales and Turker, Croatia, Armenia and Latvia are in Group D. After the loss to Armenia Wales's chances to qualify for the UEFA EURO 2024 are at risk as they are third in the group. Only the top two teams in the group qualify for the tournament.
After the match in the post-match interview, Wales manager Robert Page said, "I didn't see that coming, it's really shocked me. The fundamentals of what we stand for, hard work and priding ourselves on the complex parts of the game. They taught us a lesson of how to do the not so pretty side of the game, according to Sky Sports.
He further added, "That wasn't us. We got the early goal and created chances after that but weren't clinical. When you play against a team with that formation you have to be compact and we were far too expansive, getting done on four transitions. They were clinical, every chance they had it was in the net."
Robert Page went on to express his feeling as he said, "Perhaps it was the slap we needed. A little bit of a reality check. Everyone was getting starry-eyed and carried away. Yes, we had a great start in March but there are no bad teams anymore. Turkey beat Latvia in the 96th minute tonight, teams go toe-to-toe," as per the official website of Sky Sports.
Wales started the match on a positive note as they opened the scoring in the 10th minute of the match. Daniel James scored the goal for Wales and gave them a 1-0 lead.
Armenia came back strongly as they scored in the 19th minute of the match to level the score. Lucas Zelarayan with his goal levelled the score at 1-1.
Grant-Leon Ranos scored in the 30th minute to give Armenia an upper hand in the game. Armenia came in a strong position as they lead 2-1.
In the second half, Grant-Leon Ranos scored in the 66th minute as Armenia lead 3-1.
Wales tried to come back in the game, Harry Wilson scored in the 72nd minute to give a slight chance for a comeback for Wales. The score after his goal was 3-1.
Armenia didn't allow Wales to make a comeback as they scored just after three minutes. In the 75th minute, Lucas Zelarayan scored the fourth goal for Armenia.
If there was any chance for Wales to salvage something from this match, it was run by Kieffer Moore. In the 78th minute of the match, Wales were down to 10 men as Kieffer Moore was shown a red card for his harsh tackle on an Armenian attacker.
Wales took 18 shots out of which only five were on target. Their possession on the ball during the game was 57 per cent. They completed a total of 471 passes with an accuracy of 83 per cent.
Armenia took 11 shots out of which four were on target. They had 43 per cent of possession on the ball during the match. They completed a total of 370 passes with an accuracy of 82 per cent.