Gareth Bale to postpone retirement ‘for a little bit’ after Wales qualify for Qatar World Cup with win over Ukraine

Bale’s free-kick was turned into the net by Ukraine’s Andriy Yarmolenko in the 34th minute in Sunday’s World Cup play-off final and it proved to be the difference as Wales reached the World Cup for the first time in 64 years.

He was asked after Wales’ historic win if retirement talk would be categorically postponed for now, responding: “For a little bit.”

Bale also said Wales qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar, which gets underway on November 21, is the “greatest result” in Welsh football history.

“The result is the greatest result in the history of Welsh football,” the Wales captain said.

“We’re ecstatic, we’re going to a World Cup.

“It’s what dreams are made of, it’s what we’ve been working towards since we first came here.

“I’m speechless, we’re so happy, we did it for all our amazing fans and words can’t describe how I’m feeling at the moment.

“It was a difficult game, I haven’t done so much over the last four weeks because of my back spasm, it was tough to get through the game but the most important thing was to get through.”

Wales midfielder Joe Allen said about Wales’ qualification: “It’s hard to put into words. We’ve been dreaming of this for a long time now. We’ve had to ride our luck at time, call on Wayne and defend for our lives, but let the celebrations begin.

“I’d love to say we were calm, it was tough, I got booked early on but I think we got it together.

“We’ve come a very long way, we want to make sure this carries on. The quality has gone through the roof, and a World Cup will be incredible to see. The young players are carrying us now. The future is bright.”

Striker Kieffer Moore added: “It’s hard to put into words. I’m unbelievably proud of everyone, it’s been some mission to get here and thankfully we got over the line.

“It means everything. This is years and years of hard work, if I said six or seven years ago I’m going to be playing in the Premier League [with Bournemouth] and going to a World Cup, no-one would’ve believed me.

“To actually get here is a real pinch myself moment.”