Robert Page outlines Wales belief after landmark World Cup qualification that wasn’t a ‘miracle’

Robert Page believes Wales are becoming increasingly confident they belong in international tournaments after qualifying for the World Cup.

Page guided Wales to the 2022 World Cup via a play-off win over Ukraine on Sunday. As a result, his side will be in a group with England, Iran and the USA when the winter tournament begins in Qatar.

It will be the first time the country has been to a World Cup since 1958. Therefore, their qualification has been an experience to savour.

After the 1-0 win over Ukraine, which came via an Andriy Yarmolenko own goal after a Gareth Bale free kick, caretaker manager Page outlined how their belief has grown over the past decade or so.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Page said. “It was a stressful game. I thought Ukraine were excellent.

“We knew we had to be at our complete best to get the result, and we had to dig deep at times. I am proud of the players and the supporters.

“It’s massive for the nation. There will be people partying in Cardiff tonight until the early hours tomorrow, and rightly so.

“I’ve just said to the senior players that the one thing they’ve had missing from their CV is a World Cup tournament.

“Gary Speed started this 12 years ago, and I want to dedicate that to Gary as well.

“He started the culture. There was a change, the environment completely changed. Chris Coleman took it on to another level, and I’ve inherited that group.

“We are just confident going into games now. We don’t hope to qualify for the World Cup or Euros now, we believe we can do it, so there’s been a massive change in the mentality as well.

“It’s encouraging, it’s good, we are going in the right direction. We need to continue to develop these young players that we have done for the last few years, and