Goalscorer Sorba Thomas has claimed Belgium showed a lack of respect towards Wales following their sensational World Cup qualifier in Brussels.
The epic contest saw Craig Bellamy’s men come within minutes of a stunning result — only to be denied by Kevin De Bruyne’s late winner.
But Wales winger Thomas, who recently joined Stoke City, delivered a scathing verdict on Belgium’s attitude after his team clawed their way back from 3-0 down to level the contest, before succumbing 4-3 in the dying moments.
“I don’t think they showed us the respect we deserved,” Thomas said.
“I think they thought the game was done, but we showed our Welsh fire. We run through brick walls for each other. Even though we lost, I feel like we won in our own heads.”
Thomas’s comments added fuel to an already emotional evening, as Wales turned what looked like a humiliation into a statement performance against one of the world’s highest-ranked sides.
Wales manager Craig Bellamy also appeared to exchange serious words with Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku after the final whistle.
Belgium looked out of sight after 30 minutes thanks to goals from Lukaku, Youri Tielemans and Jeremy Doku.
But Harry Wilson’s penalty just before half-time sparked a remarkable response.
Thomas then netted his first international goal early in the second half before setting up Brennan Johnson’s equaliser — a dramatic turnaround that left the home crowd stunned.
De Bruyne, however, would have the final word, volleying in at the back post with just two minutes left to seal a dramatic victory and hand Bellamy his first defeat as Wales manager.
Bellamy was full of praise for his side’s character but didn’t shy away from calling out their poor start.
“I have to be honest, since September I’ve really felt proud to be their coach,” he said.
“But we didn’t cope with the momentum in the first half when their pen went against us. We suffered for a period but then we got a penalty and that gave us belief.
“Second half, we showed what we can do. The players have to understand how good they are. To come to a top-eight team and to play that way will give us so much.
“But I don’t like the defeat and I don’t feel ‘oh unlucky Wales.’ We need to win these games.”
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Captain Ben Davies admitted the defeat was especially hard to take given how close Wales came to pulling off the improbable.
“Getting back as close as we did is probably why it's as painful as it is,” he said.
“We knew we could do a lot better. You could see in the second half, we managed to nick a goal before half-time and it gave us something to hang on to and we pushed them close.
“We have plenty more games, we just have to focus on ourselves and hopefully results go our way.”
Wilson, who opened the comeback with his 14th international goal, echoed that sentiment.
“It's a tough one to take,” he said. “We didn't start great by giving them a three-goal lead, but we have to take positives from the way we reacted.
“We felt we were always in the game and once we got the goal before half-time we just kept believing and kept being patient.
“We showed we can go toe-to-toe with a top-10 team and we're just gutted at the end.
“It shows what we're about, we've pulled it back before. We'd rather not give a team like Belgium a three-goal lead, but we scored three goals and we probably should be leaving with something.
“The group is far from done and if we perform like the second half we will still have a big say in this group, and if we win every game it's still in our hands.”
Wales will now turn their focus to a tough away trip to Kazakhstan in early September, followed by a friendly at home against Canada.
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