Wales “disappointed” after 3-0 loss to Ireland says Craig Knight
WREXHAM, WALES - 12 MAY 2023: Wales Head Coach Craig Knight during a under 17 training session prior to the UEFA 2023 European Under-17 Championships in Budapest, Hungry. (Pic by John Smith/FAW)
Craig Knight says Wales are disappointed after they fell to a second consecutive loss at the 2023 U17 Euros, which saw them eliminated from the tournament.
Cymru suffered a 3-0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland, leaving them bottom of Group A, without any points, with just one game to go.
Just as they did against Hungary, Wales hit the woodwork early on through Iwan Morgan and had a penalty shout turned away by the officials, before falling behind.
“The boys are disappointed, we are all disappointed,” said Knight.
“I thought Ireland started the first half much sharper than we did and despite that, their goalkeeper has had to make a great save. Fair play to the lad for tipping that onto the post.
“Some days you might get that penalty at the back post where it looks like Braydon Clarke is pulled to the ground. Then to rub salt in the wounds they go down the other end and get a penalty.
“Luke saves the penalty but they have to retake it, he saves it again and they’ve followed in the rebound. It’s disappointing because those are the fine lines that we’ve talked about.”
It was a tough way to fall behind, especially for Wales’ goalkeeper Luke Armstrong, who brilliantly saved the first penalty before the referee ordered Naj Razi to retake, as the 16-year-old was adjudged to have left his line too early.
The Cardiff City shot-stopper would deny Razi from the spot once more but was unable to recover quickly enough to prevent the rebound from going in.
“I feel like the rules are so hard for a penalty as a goalkeeper. I was delighted with the first save, but then for it to be pulled back is not the best.
“After saving the first penalty I tried to get in his head more. For the first one, I felt like I got in his head and he’s missed it, that’s going to haunt him a bit for the second one.
“I’ve just got to be confident because when you save the first one the pressure is on him again,. Unfortunately, though, he’s put the rebound in.
There was also very little Armstrong could do to prevent the second and third goals either as Ike Orazi and Romeo Akachukwu fired in two Goal of the Tournament contenders to seal the win for Ireland.
“There’s not much you can do about the second or the third goal because they were both worldies.
“As a goalkeeper, you’ve just got to hold your hands up and say fair play. We battled on and tried to get a goal, but it just wasn’t our day again.”
Wales’ hopes of reaching the U17 Euros knockout stage are over after Poland beat Hungary in Saturday’s other Group A fixture.
Knight’s side needed Hungary to beat Poland – and Ireland in their next game – to set up a final group-stage game against the latter, where they would have needed a major goal swing to cut Poland’s far superior goal difference.
Speaking after their loss, Armstrong detailed how the atmosphere in the Wales dressing room: “We all feel disappointed because I think the realisation that we are going out has come to us all really.
“But we are all proud of how far we’ve come. So that is a positive, we’ve just got to reflect on the game and take it as a learning curve.
“Against Poland, we have got to be in their faces a bit more because I think we’ve been a bit passive at times during the first two games.
“We also need to be more clinical when we get our chances early in the game because in both games we’ve had chances early on that could have changed the game.”
“It’s going to be really difficult, Cymru boss Knight added. “Whenever you put on a Wales shirt with that dragon on your chest, you have got to compete, so we’ll be looking to compete against Poland.”
