Leeds United man proud despite comeback drama ending in national team camp 'frustrations'

Ampadu was one of three Leeds men in the starting line-up, alongside keeper Karl Darlow and centre-back Joe Rodon, who scored his first international goal in the weekend win over Liechtenstein. The fourth Elland Road hero in Craig Bellamy's Wales squad, Daniel James, missed out on both games due to illness.

Wales looked set for a rough night in Brussels after going 3-0 down inside half an hour. Belgium were rampant in the early stages in Brussels. Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring from the spot and Youri Tielemans made it 2-0 after ghosting into the Wales penalty area unmarked. Jeremy Doku got the third with a strike from just inside the box that Darlow got a hand to but couldn't keep out.

But Wales came roaring back. Harry Wilson fired in a penalty before the break and then crossed to find Sorba Thomas who reduced the deficit to just a single goal. Brennan Johnson's header completed an unlikely comeback, levelling the scores at 3-3 with 21 minutes remaining.

Wales celebrated again when Lukaku's second was ruled out by VAR due to the ball going out of play in the buld-up, but it was the hosts who had the last laugh. Kevin De Bruyne's run to the back post wasn't spotted and he won it for Belgium in the 88th minute.

The result allowed North Macedonia to leapfrog Wales into first place in Group J and though Ampadu admitted there were frustrations in the camp, they could take pride in the manner of their fightback.

Ampadu’s thoughts

“Obviously there’s frustrations, our mentality is to win every game,” he said.

“We were very disappointed with the first half and the manner in which we conceded the goals. That’s not really us. But to show the character to fight and come back, it is something Wales has shown for many years. We’re proud of how we came back and the determination we showed. We gave ourselves a lot to come back to. We kind of got there, but we didn’t finish it off. There’s still a long way to go, a lot of points to play for and games to go out there and win.”