WALES manager Chris Coleman confessed to being “gutted,” after his charges were denied by a last-gasp Finnish equaliser, writes Michael Pearlman.
The former defender has penned a new two-year deal with the Football Association of Wales but saw his side hit by a 93rd minute equaliser at the Cardiff City Stadium after Andy King gave Wales an early lead.
“We are gutted to concede when we did having worked hard to get our noses in front.
“Any game where you’re winning with three minutes to go you expect to win and we knew they were a good counter-attacking team, but we slipped up at the end.
“It’s a lack of concentration, we’ve worked on it this week, in transition they are very aggressive, but we’ve just had a lapse with one player running through our backline.
“At this level if you knock off for one minute you get punished. But Finland are a good team, it was a good test for us and I was impressed by them.”
Coleman revealed midfielder Aaron Ramsey was still suffering with the sickness bug which affected the Arsenal camp ahead of their defeat at Old Trafford, Ramsey unable to train properly on Friday and subsequently not risked.
However, despite failing to record a victory, Coleman was happy with what he saw.
“There was quite a lot to be optimistic about, I certainly feel happy about what I saw,” he said.
Coleman revealed Wales will play a friendly in March and possibly two in June as they continue their preparations for Euro 2016 Qualifying.
“That’s the plan, we’ve got a few options for the summer,” he said.
Finland boss Mixu Paatelainen believed his side were worthy of a draw.
“Definitely, a draw was a fair result, we deserved it for the effort put in,” he said.
“We coped well with Gareth Bale, it’s impossible to keep him 100% quiet but we managed the best we could.”
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