{"id":291674,"date":"2023-09-08T01:34:35","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T01:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=291674"},"modified":"2023-09-08T01:34:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T01:34:35","slug":"rob-page-expects-wales-to-take-positives-from-stalemate-into-crunch-latvia-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/rob-page-expects-wales-to-take-positives-from-stalemate-into-crunch-latvia-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Rob Page expects Wales to take positives from stalemate into crunch Latvia clash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rob Page believes Wales are heading into their crunch Euro 2024 qualifier in Latvia with renewed confidence after holding South Korea to a Cardiff draw.<\/p>\n
Wales have now won only once in 13 games, but Page accentuated the positives after a goalless stalemate against opponents who reached the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of positives and we take that momentum and confidence into a tough game on Monday,\u201d Page said after Wales had returned to action following damaging Euro 2024 qualifying defeats by Armenia and Turkey in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cJJ (Jordan James) has had a very good debut and he\u2019s had that experience under his belt against a world-class team.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s building confidence ahead of Monday and getting rid of the disappointment of June\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve reacted in a positive way. We\u2019ve had meetings through the week regards to the defenders and the goals we\u2019ve conceded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve kept a clean sheet against a technically good team with one of the best strikers (Son Heung-min) in world football, and at the end we could have won it 1-0 with Kieffer\u2019s header.\u201d<\/p>\n
Substitute Kieffer Moore almost broke the deadlock after 66 minutes when his header came back off a post.<\/p>\n
Skipper Aaron Ramsey, who has just entered the action on the hour, was unable to prod home the rebound from a yard out.<\/p>\n
Brennan Johnson played the first 45 minutes after completing a \u00a347.5million move from Nottingham Forest to Tottenham on deadline day as Page selected a far stronger side than most had expected before their Latvia test in Riga.<\/p>\n
Page said: \u201cThere\u2019s been lots said since the last camp. Everybody\u2019s entitled to their opinion. It\u2019s not a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know what I\u2019ve got in the changing room and the staff room. It\u2019s about winning games of football, I get that. The transition we\u2019re in, we\u2019ve lost some world-class players.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would have seen the reaction of the players. I\u2019m really pleased with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of how we defended. That was back to our identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the level of performance we reached in March, away against Croatia and at home against Latvia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t meet those standards in June and that\u2019s what disappointed me the most, but we were back to those standards here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jurgen Klinsmann was appointed as South Korea head coach in February and has failed to win any of his five games in charge \u2013 drawing three and losing two.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very good test for us and I am pleased with what the players showed,\u201d said Klinsmann, the former Germany and United States boss.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWales had a back five that was very difficult to break. As a team we want to see development, we want to see them grow and every game helps us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the moment in these friendly games to try these things out, you can see that the team has changed since my first game in March.\u201d<\/p>\n