Phil SumblerThe sending off of Neco Williams was the main discussion point from the Welsh defeat to France last night.ย The Liverpool player was shown a red card in the 25th minute for deliberate handball after it was decided upon VAR review that he had blocked the goalscoring opportunity.
The award of the penalty itself looked harsh but to then show a red card took the shine off what was a good Welsh performance but ten men against the World Champions is always likely to end in defeat and that was how it ended for Wales.
Gavin Ward saved Benzema’s resulting penalty but goals from Mbappe, Griezmann and Dembรฉlรฉ sealed the win for the hosts as Wales completed another one of their warm ups ahead of the start of their Euro 2020 campaign in just nine days time.
Robert Page confirmed after the game that Wales would appeal the red cardย “It’s a bitter one to take,” said Page when talking to the BBC.
“I thought it was harsh to give a penalty in the first place but to send him off was a bitter blow.
“We’ll have a look at it [appealing against the decision], the staff are waiting to have a debrief and that will be one thing that we’ll speak about.
“That’s the disappointing thing, the plan was to play him for so many minutes tonight and then building up to Saturday, and we can’t do that now.
“If there’s a chance of doing it [appealing], we’ll do it.
“It spoilt the game, changed the course of the game, for France as well I imagine because they wanted to get a lot out of the game,” said Page.
“When you’ve got 11 men against France it’s tough, so to go down to 10 men you use it then as a tool if the same thing happens in the tournament.
“The fourth official apologised just after half-time. When I said we’d had a look at it [the incident], he just said ‘sorry coach’.
“I’m not sure if he was apologising for the decision or the position we ended up in.
“It was a hard one to take. The penalty was bad enough, to send him off was very harsh.”
