Craig Bellamy admitted Wales would have to “let it hurt” after their World Cup dream was destroyed by a penalty shoot-out play-off defeat.
Bosnia and Herzegovina prevailed 4-2 on spot-kicks after a 1-1 draw following 120 tension-packed minutes at Cardiff City Stadium.
Wales were four minutes from booking a home play-off final against Italy – 2-0 winners over Northern Ireland – on Tuesday after Daniel James’ stunning strike just after half-time, but 40-year-old veteran Edin Dzeko saved Bosnia by heading home from a corner.
“We’re going to hurt, let it hurt,” said boss Bellamy after history cruelly repeated itself as Wales had lost a Euro 2024 play-off final to Poland in Cardiff on penalties.
“I haven’t really felt this towards a group of players, because I’ve probably never had a group of players for myself as a coach.
“Getting to back-to-back World Cups was really our target. To know you’ve not got there, and when you see players really disappointed, it hurts you more.
“I hurt tonight as it sinks in now. It will be a sleepless night, difficult to sleep off the back of this one. But it makes me even more determined tomorrow.
“The sun will rise, and I’m going to watch that sun rise. Then straight away, how do I go again? How do I improve? How does this team get better?
“Let’s get over tonight, but there’s a bright future. If I was playing, imagine looking forward to what’s coming up.
“As a group of players, you have the Nations League coming up. Group A.
“You have a home nation Euros coming. It’s not a bad time to be a Welsh footballer.”
Wales seized the initial advantage in the shoot-out as Karl Darlow saved Ermedin Demirovic’s kick.
But Brennan Johnson blazed over and Neco Williams saw Nikola Vasilj push away his penalty, allowing Kerim Alajbegovic to seal Wales’ fate.
Bellamy said he had not yet spoken to Johnson, who left the pitch in tears after his crucial penalty miss.
“Of course I’ll speak to Brennan. Let’s get through this moment (first),” said Bellamy.
“It’s a hard one and we practice pens. We’ve done all our research on it, we spent all week doing it.
“So we couldn’t have done any more on penalties. Honestly, I don’t believe in luck on pens.
“You’ve got to be prepared and rehearse them every day in training. The analysis on penalties we went really through it.
“That leaves me more bewildered. when they missed the first one. I thought ‘yeah, this is exactly what we practice for’, but it wasn’t the case.”
Wales had the best first-half opportunities with Harry Wilson striking the upright midway through.
James hit the woodwork for the second time after lashing home from 25 yards, but Bosnia had threatened increasingly before Dzeko scored his 73rd international goal.
Bellamy said: “If there’s any learning from it, which is really difficult right now with the disappointment, it is when the heat comes you’ve got to be even calmer.
“What happened is not what we want for this team. Bosnia are drilled for chaos, and we allowed chaos to creep in for 20 minutes.
“We’re not built that way. We don’t play that way. But I do understand it’s a play-off and they’re going out.”
