Mixed emotions in Wales camp after fightback ends in defeat – Ethan Ampadu

Ethan Ampadu admitted there were mixed emotions in the Wales camp after their extraordinary fightback against Belgium ultimately ended in failure.

Wales recovered from conceding three goals in the opening 27 minutes of their World Cup qualifier in Brussels on Monday to draw level in the second half through Harry Wilson, Sorba Thomas and Brennan Johnson.

But Kevin De Bruyne’s late volley eventually saw Wales lose 4-3  – the first defeat of the Craig Bellamy era – and leaves the Dragons with an uphill battle to top the group and qualify automatically for next summer’s World Cup.

“Obviously there’s frustrations, our mentality is to win every game,” said Leeds captain Ampadu.

“We were very disappointed with the first half and the manner in which we conceded the goals. That’s not really us.

“But to show the character to fight and come back, it is something Wales has shown for many years.

“We’re proud of how we came back and the determination we showed.

“We gave ourselves a lot to come back to. We kind of got there, but we didn’t finish it off.

“There’s still a long way to go, a lot of points to play for and games to go out there and win.”

Wales will resume their World Cup campaign away to Kazakhstan in September, one point behind new Group J leaders North Macedonia.

Group favourites Belgium, ranked eighth in the world, are three points behind Wales with two games in hand and visit Cardiff in October.

Midfielder Jordan James said: “I think teams will watch this and fear us because it was a good performance.

“Against many big teams, the opposition sit back and protect the goal.

“We know we’re good enough and have got the players to hurt teams.

“Sometimes they were able to get through because they’ve got top players, but when you do put teams under pressure, you see what can happen.

“We didn’t give up (at 3-0 down) and a lot of nations would have given up.

“That’s in our DNA. The game is never over. Even at 30 minutes, we know we’ve got ages left. If they can score three, we can score three.

“It’s madness when you’re involved in a game like that. You’ve got to try and keep a level head, but it’s a hard one to take.”