Wales conceded three straight goals after taking an early lead against Belgium in Leuven, much to the chagrin of their star forward Gareth Bale, who ruefully lamented Wales’ “sloppy mistakes” in their 3-1 defeat to the world No. 1-ranked team on Wednesday as they made an inauspicious start to their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.
The on-loan winger to Tottenham creditably assisted the free-flowing opener by sliding a through ball to Harry Wilson, before Belgium retaliated dominantly with goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Thorgan Hazard and Romelu Lukaku.
Bale did concede that although knowing he “knew it would be hard” to keep up with Belgium, he nevertheless registered disappointment their spirited performance didn’t lead to a positive result.
“It was great to get an early goal, it was going well, but a few sloppy mistakes let them back in,” Bale told Sky Sports .
“We knew they are a great team and obviously when you make mistakes you get punished.
“In the second half we were in the game for large parts. Obviously we are disappointed to lose, but we knew it would be hard coming here and have to take the positives out of the game and take them into the next game.
“We knew at half-time the next goal would be crucial, if they got it, it makes it very difficult. We showed good spirit, but it wasn’t meant to be, so we take the positives out of the game.”
Bale and the Wales squad will attempt to rebound against another front-runner of Group E in the Czech Republic on March 30, after they defeated Estonia 6-2 in their qualifying opener.