Wales fell to a late 2-0 defeat to Iran after Iran scored twice in stoppage time to plummet Wales to the bottom of the group after Wayne Hennessey saw red.
Wales saw plenty of the ball but lacked ideas and creativity in the final third as for Iran they hit the woodwork on multiple occasions and had a goal disallowed in the first half.
Page acknowledged the fact that his team simply wasn’t at the races today: “You can carry one or two players if they have off days, but when the majority of the team are not quite at it, there’s only going to be one outcome unfortunately.”
A dishearten Page also said: “This is a hard one to take because of the stage we’re on. I’ve said to them before every game, ‘go out and show the world what you show us every day’. That is not a true reflection of that team. They got their rewards today, they deserved that defeat. That’s not like them, and that’s what disappoints me the most.”
A jubilant Iran boss, Carlos Queiroz was a very proud manager in which he said at full time: “It’s just the beginning we need to finish the job but it was a wonderful day for us, I don’t have words to say thank you to our players they were brilliant and deserve all the attention and respect.”
Iran will now be filled with confidence that against all the odds they could make it out of the group, avoid defeat against USA next game and they will be on their way to the knockouts.
