Wales Reaching Last 16 Will Be Hard – Gareth Bale

Wales captain Gareth Bale has said qualifying for the knockout stages of the World Cup “will be difficult” after Friday’s 2-0 defeat by Iran.

Robert Page’s side have one point from two games and must beat England to stand any chance of progressing.

Stoppage-time goals by Roozbeh Cheshmi and Ramin Rezaeian sealed the defeat for Wales, who also had goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey sent off.

“It’s gutting – there’s no other way to say it,” Bale said.

We fought till the end but it’s difficult when you go down to 10 men in the World Cup against good teams,” Bale added.

“We have to keep going and we have to pick ourselves up straight away. It will be difficult now, but we have to try to beat England – it’s as simple as that.”