http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chris-c9006 Coleman, unravelled his disappointment over his side’s 2-0 loss to Croatia on Tuesday night and rued their defensive mistakes.
The Dragons started off the proceedings on an ominous note and were on course to put a vigilant show against their heavily fancied opponents.
However, a lapse of concentration from skipper, Ashley Williams, saw him play a poor back-pass to his goalkeeper. The ball was intercepted by Mario Mandzukic who tucked the ball in for an easy finish.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Eduardo-c12034 then put the game beyond all doubt 13 minutes after the restart, as his close range finish sealed a comfortable 2-0 win for the home team.
The victory lifted Croatia at the second place in Group A after having secured 10 points from their first 4 games.
Wales, on the other hand, have got a tedious task in hand to progress into the next round as they are currently languishing in the fifth place in the group of six. Only http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Scotland-c756 are below them in the standings.
Nonetheless, Coleman praised his team for displaying a fighting spirit, but feels that a couple of major mistakes in the backline cost them the match.
He was particularly disappointed to see a player of William’s calibre commit such a horrendous error and urged the team to cut short their mistakes if they are to stand any chance of qualifying.
“We make one mistake at the moment defensively and we get punished,” he said.
“You don't expect that from an experienced player like Ashley, who is a quality defender. We have to cut that out to give ourselves a chance. As hard as we fought, we have to cut out individual errors like that.”
Players from both the teams struggled to cope with the difficult conditions, as the grass in the ground appeared to be a lot heavier than normal – a factor which some blamed as the reason behind Williams’ pass failing to reach the goalkeeper.
However, the manager set aside the suggestion that the heavy outfield drew the error from the Swansea City defender, as he believes that he himself was at fault for the pass.
“The conditions were difficult, but I wouldn't put the defeat down to that,” he added.
Wales will play their next qualifier against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Croatia-c2879 on the 26th of March, 2013.
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