Gareth Bale gives defiant five-word answer on Wales retirement after England loss

Gareth Bale has faced questions over his future with Wales beyond the 2022 World Cup.

Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2022 by Express.co.uk

Gareth Bale plans to continue playing for Wales

Gareth Bale has put rumours of his potential retirement from international football to bed following Wales' exit at the 2022 World Cup after a 3-0 defeat to England. Wales headed into their final group game against England needing a win to give themselves a chance of qualifying for the knockout phase.

It was Wales' first World Cup finals appearance since 1958, when they reached the quarter-finals before losing to Brazil. But beating Gareth Southgate's side was always going to be a tall order and that proved the case when Marcus Rashford fired in a brilliant free-kick to open the scoring.

Phil Foden then quickly added a second before Rashford secured all three points for England midway through the second half as he doubled his tally for the match. Bale was surprisingly substituted at the break, meaning he could only watch on from the sidelines as Wales' World Cup dream came to an end.

At 33 years of age and with his injury record, Bale has faced several questions on his future at international level. But speaking in the aftermath of Wales' World Cup exit, Bale confirmed that he plans to continue playing for Wales "as long as I'm wanted".

"It's a difficult moment now obviously, but we go again," Bale told the BBC. "We have a qualifying campaign starting now again in March.

"We have a few months now to get away from international football, which is obviously disappointing - we'd love to stay long, but we go again in March." When asked to confirm whether that was with himself involved, Bale added: "I hope so, yes."

Wales begin their Euro 2024 qualification campaign at the end of March with back-to-back games against Croatia and Latvia. Armenia and Turkey make up the remaining teams in Wales' group with the top two sides making it into the tournament.

And Wales boss Rob Page is hopeful the team can focus on the positives of making the World Cup to help their bid to qualify for the Euros. "It's very tough at this moment in time," he said.

"I thought we were outstanding in the first half, I really did. The effort they put in without the ball was exceptional. We addressed it at half time and said we could've been a little bit better but I won't hear a bad word said about those players - they have given it everything today. The first goal was a wonderful strike, the second one disappointed me a little bit but I don't want to talk about negatives today. The boys have put a shift in.

"We disappointed to be leaving the tournament but if you're going to go out, that's the way, that first half performance again, was excellent. My message is don't be disappointed. We've got to build for the future now. We got to a World Cup and that was an unbelievable achievement for that group of players."