Wilkinson backs Wales to bounce back from 'worst performance'

Ffion Morgan's late goal to reduce Wales' deficit against Slovakia to 2-1 could prove vital come Tuesday's second leg in Cardiff

Euro 2025 Qualifying Round One play-off second leg: Wales v Slovakia

Venue: Cardiff City Stadium Date: Tuesday, 29 October Kick-off: 19:15 GMT

Coverage: Live on BBC One Wales, iPlayer, BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru, the BBC Sport website and app, plus live text commentary. Highlights S4C, 22:00 GMT and later on demand.

Rhian Wilkinson says Wales must learn from their “worst performance” under her management as they bid to salvage their dream of qualifying for a first major tournament.

An abject display in Poprad saw Wales trail 2-0 to a Slovakia side ranked 22 places below them in the world rankings as the hosts missed several good chances to extend their advantage.

However, an 89th-minute goal from substitute Ffion Morgan gives Wales hope ahead of Tuesday’s second leg of the Euro 2025 play-off semi-final at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Wilkinson admits Wales are lucky to have not suffered a heavier defeat and hopes her players can take momentum from their late improvement that culminated in Morgan’s potentially vital goal.

“I absolutely think Slovakia were deserved winners on the night, they put us on the back-foot incredibly well,” Wilkinson told BBC Sport Wales.

“I think 'frustrated' sums up the team, Slovakia deserved to beat us, absolutely.

“It was the worst performance since I have been in charge and I don’t want to shy away from it or pretend it was a game that was close and we were unfortunate, because we weren’t, we were deserved losers of the game.”

Wales captain Angharad James says her side failed to show their usual “passion and pride” but reiterated that Morgan’s late goal gives them hope for the return leg in Cardiff on Tuesday.

“It’s disappointing. It wasn’t a performance we wanted but it’s half-time (in the tie)," James said.

“We’ve got the home leg on Tuesday and it’s more important than ever so hopefully we can get a big crowd.

“There are new partnerships that take time to build but there wasn’t the passion or pride we would have liked. We could have given more.

“We will learn from it and we will be better on Tuesday.”

Wales have come close to qualifying for a major tournament for the first time in their last three qualification cycles and Wilkinson believes the players’ huge desire to make history led to them playing “frantically”.

“We played with a franticness that I haven’t seen before and that is where a team that hasn’t quite made it a couple of times, you see that coming out and we are better than that,” she said.

“They want it so much; this is what I mean when I talk about the naivety of the team on occasion, they get stretched because they dive in to tackles when they shouldn’t, they go chasing and then as soon as they connect as a team you see what they can do.”

Wilkinson felt the 2-1 defeat was the most Wales deserved from a game they were favourites to win.

“We are very fortunate it is a home and away series and we get to bring it home now, we have a one goal deficit to make up,” she added.

“I think we were lucky to go in at half-time at 0-0 and I told the players that. This game has to mean something for the growth of our team. I thought they could have scored and made it 3-0 at one point.

“As soon as we started playing our football and had them running after us you saw how many chances we created. We’ve got to look for the positives and we are definitely looking forward to getting home in front of our fans and using that energy to spur the team on.”

Wales improved markedly after substitute Jess Fishlock came on, with Wales’ most-capped player and record goalscorer providing the assist for Morgan’s potentially vital late goal.

However, Wilkinson says Wales cannot use the absence of Fishlock – and cap centurion Sophie Ingle who is out until 2025 after ACL surgery – as excuses.

“We have to look at what we were doing in terms of giving ourselves a chance in Cardiff and we started to put pressure on them and had some opportunities and finally getting the ball in the back of the net gives us a confidence going home that I am pleased about,” Wilkinson added.

“If you don’t have Jess Fishlock on the field she’s a huge miss and the same with Sophie Ingle. It’s a long time (five years) since we were without the pair of them but that is not an excuse, because we have the depth.

“What we were probably lacking was ‘who do you look to when times are tough?’ but the players out on the pitch need to stand tall for Wales.”