Wales men’s national soccer team manager Rob Page has admitted that he doesn’t want to play the South Korean men’s national soccer team led by Jürgen Klinsmann.
“Page said he didn’t want to play the South Koreans in a friendly ahead of their match against Latvia,” the British publication The Independent reported on July 7.
Here’s the story. UEFA nations are currently in the midst of qualifying for the 2024 European Football Championship (Euro), and groups with an odd number of nations in their assigned group must fill in the gaps during the A-match.
This means that if you only have one Euro qualifier in your September A-match, you’ll have to make up two matches with friendlies against other countries. This is why Wales, who only have one Euro qualifier against Latvia in their September schedule, scheduled a friendly against South Korea.
But the rule frustrated Page. “We had to play the friendlies, (but) to be honest, I’d rather not play them,” he confessed.
“We have injury resources. “The important game for me is Monday’s game (against Latvia) and I have to manage my players accordingly,” he said, “There will be a lot of substitutes. We’ll try to get them ready for Monday’s game.” Rather than going into South Korea with a full squad, he suggested that he would rotate players for the Latvia game. 바카라
Despite Page’s use of the word Monday, the Wales-Latvia match will be played on Tuesday, December 12.
Wales are currently fourth in Group D with four points, but there is not much separating them from second-place Armenia (six points) and third-place Croatia (four points), so the outcome of this match could change the standings significantly.