Ethan Ampadu believes Wales’ fast start to Euro 2024 qualifying shows painful World Cup lessons have been learned.
Wales’ first World Cup appearance for 64 years turned into a damp squib in Qatar as Rob Page’s side finished bottom of their group with no wins and only one goal from three matches – a Gareth Bale penalty.
But Wales have bounced back at the start of European Championship qualifying by taking four points from two games in Group D.
Wales backed up a superb opening 1-1 draw away to World Cup semi-finalists Croatia by overcoming Latvia in Cardiff on Tuesday courtesy of a thumping Kieffer Moore header.
Ampadu said: “We were all disappointed after the World Cup, that’s the message that came across. We could have performed better, but that’s in the past.
“We’ve learned from it and hopefully we’re showing that.
“We’re pleased to get four points at the start of this campaign. It’s probably what we aimed for.
“You want to win every game but I think everyone knows how tough it is to go away to Croatia, who don’t lose many games.
“We were all happy with that and it was about trying to take that momentum into the Latvia game.
“I think we did. It was a tough game. They make it very difficult and they are very good at what they do.”
Skipper Aaron Ramsey, who has taken over the captaincy from the retired Bale, addressed the entire playing squad and staff in a post-match huddle after the final whistle.
Ampadu now has a leading role in that group, having ended both qualifiers wearing the armband after Ramsey was replaced.
The versatile Chelsea player currently on loan at Italian club Spezia has already won 42 caps at the tender age of 22.
“Aaron said how proud he was of all us after a difficult start,” said Ampadu, who has been used recently by Wales in central midfield while playing as a defender in Italy.
“We’ve always had this Together Stronger thing and I think that shows. It’s just normal for us to be together.
“I’ve been lucky to play under a lot of great captains.
“I have to thank Aaron for giving it (the armband) to me when he came off, but it’s all about the team and getting the result.”
Wales’ hopes of qualification were also boosted by Turkey’s 2-0 home defeat to Croatia on Tuesday.
With Croatia favourites to top the group, Turkey are expected to be Wales’ main rivals for the second automatic qualifying place for Germany 2024.
Ampadu said: “We can look at all the results and hopefully that helps us out, but we don’t want to look too far ahead.
“Everyone’s got their club games and hard work now before we meet up again in the summer.”
Wales’ next qualifier is at home to Armenia on June 16 ahead of a trip to Turkey three days later.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here