Chris Gunter: Wales have recovered from setbacks before and will do so again

10 October 2016 13:23

Chris Gunter is confident Wales will count on past successes to recover from their World Cup setback against Georgia.

Wales dropped two World Cup qualifying points against opponents 127 places below them in the FIFA rankings with a 1-1 draw in Cardiff on Sunday.

The result saw Wales slip from first to third place in Group D, with wins for Serbia and the Republic of Ireland taking them two points clear of Chris Coleman's Dragons.

"You're not going to win every game in international football, as nice as it would be," Gunter said.

"Generally over time in big games we've delivered. We've got big games coming up and we're comfortable in that situation.

"The fans will be disappointed, but it's important to remember we're still in a strong position.

"We've proved that when we need to win games we can, and that will be the case right until the end of this group.

"We need the fans to stick with us. We've had little setbacks before and we've recovered really well."

Wales actually dropped home points against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Israel in Euro 2016 qualifying but still managed to progress to the finals in France.

And Reading defender Gunter believes there will be plenty of twists and turns in a group which is shaping up to be extremely competitive.

Serbia and the Republic have both picked up seven points from their opening three games, while Wales have five points and Austria four.

Next up for Wales is a home game against group leaders Serbia on November 12.

"We've already seen teams taking points off each other," Gunter said. "Georgia will do the same.

"Right up until the last game I don't think there will be one team who runs away with this group.

"I saw people saying before it was a must-win, but I don't think you can have a must-win in the third game of the group.

"Obviously it's two points dropped in our view, but it doesn't change the way we approach the rest of the group.

"We're still unbeaten and we've got plenty of games we can go and win.

"I don't think if we'd beaten Georgia we'd be saying we'll take a draw against Serbia next month.

"We approach home games the exact same way and, as I've said, we're not at the stage of must-win games yet."

Wales have sometimes struggled to overpower inferior opposition at home.

But Gunter said that was not a case of teams working out how Wales play.

"I'm sure teams haven't just started doing their homework on us after the Euros," Gunter said.

"Teams do that at every game at this level. People think you are going to play certain teams in international football and win three, four, five nil.

"More often than not it doesn't really happen.

"These are good teams, and just because they're not household names it doesn't mean it's not going to be a tough game."

Source: PA