David Brooks concedes fans will start to doubt Wales after Armenia shocker
David Brooks accepts that “people will be starting to doubt us” following Wales’ humiliating 4-2 Euro 2024 qualifying defeat against Armenia.
Wales would have gone top of Pool D had they beaten a team 71 places below them in the world rankings.
And life will not get any easier in terms of the battle for automatic qualification as Wales face an appointment with group leaders Turkey in Samsun on Monday.
“If we win that, we go back into a position of power,” Brooks said. “We all know that, and that is what we are going to be trying to do.
“We all know what we want to achieve – we want to get to the major tournaments. We have two days to kind of get over it and get back to work.
“I think people will be starting to doubt us, but we have got to go and try and put in a performance to prove all those people wrong.
“We all want to get to a major tournament, so nothing has changed.”
Wales’ first European Championship qualifying defeat at home since 2011 dropped them to third in the group as Turkey won 3-2 in Latvia.
Lucas Zelarayan and Grant-Leon Ranos both scored twice as Armenia secured one of the greatest victories in their football history.
Misery
And Welsh misery was completed by the dismissal of Kieffer Moore, who was adjudged to have committed foul play by Bulgarian referee Georgi Kabakov after tangling with goalkeeper Ognjen Chancharevich. He will miss the Turkey clash.
Brooks added: “Four goals at home isn’t good enough, I think we all know that, and we will be getting together and trying to figure out how to put that right in two days’ time.
“Bigger teams than us have done that to us, and we’ve caused upset results. It happens near enough every week in the Premier League, and we all knew that going into the game. They took their chances well.
“I’ve spoken to Kieffer. I don’t think he thinks he’s done a lot. They were kind of making a meal out of everything.
“Kieffer is a big part of what we want to do, so he is going to be a big miss for Turkey.”
Brooks’ return to the international arena was a highlight of an often chaotic night at Cardiff City Stadium.
He was diagnosed with stage-two Hodgkin lymphoma while on international duty in October 2021, and Brooks received a standing ovation when he went on as a second-half substitute.
“It was special,” he said. “It has been a long two years to finally put that Wales shirt back on.
“To get the reception that I did, especially when I came on – I could hear every single one of them (fans) – and I just want to say thank you.”
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No, we doubt Page. He has one see through tactic and no plan B. He has to go and should have gone after that embarrassing world cup display.
Start to doubt. I never doubt my country’s ability , but what I do question are those players, the very same who qualified for last European Championship & World Cup but capitulated when a team 7o odd places below them in the rankings teaches them how to play football and what it is to be patriotic and passionate about playing for their country. It seems at the moment both Wales football & Welsh rugby have players who care more about money & lifestyle than they do the honour of playing for their country. Makes me bloody angry. Really it does… Read more »
Can you blame them when all they hear and see are allegations? Without proof provided. They do this with children within education, it’s designed to demoralise so they wish to look elsewhere. These players live in England, and embedded within English culture 98% of the year. All things considered, It amazes me how well we have done in the last decade or so. I also said this before, when Bale left, Wales golden age would be over, not because they are bad players, but rather Bale could drag an extra 15% out of them. We no longer have that available.
Comparing ourselves with England has always been Wales’ problem. Since they are a country of 56 million and we have just 3 million it is futile. We can get away with it in rugby because we can compete with them, but football not so much. The problem is the media hypes all about England, and this results in people being more familiar with the England team than our own. It is perhaps more healthier to compare ourselves with the likes of Denmark or Croatia. Countries not much bigger than Wales in terms of population but do qualify regularly and succeed… Read more »
They were obviously already on their Holidays. Pathetic performer from all involved. At Qualifying is no longer achievable!
I hate to say it but Wales were absolutely shocking looked like Armenia were ranked 70 places above Wales it was,a terrible performance from the Welsh team.
We still proved however that we can get the goals, the heavy defeat was down to sloppy defense resulting in us conceding 4. It should be unthinkable and unacceptable to lose to a country like Armenia. Even before the golden generation playing against them, Azerbaijan, Belarus or Latvia was almost always a certified win. The days of being in the doldrums should have been long gone by now. Yes Bale has retired, but a new Welsh player will emerge at some point, just as Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs did before Bale (don’t forget Michael Owen who should… Read more »