The only real positives were that the visitors picked up no fresh injuries and that key men Joe Ledley, Joe Allen, Hal Robson-Kanu were not involved at all and a certain Gareth Bale featured for only the final 25 minutes.
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“Joe [Ledley] has been on the pitch, doing everything the rest of the players are doing”, said Wales manager Chris Coleman at a press conference.
Their other main player is Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey.
And that means building from a rock solid base in defence first and foremost – something that was not in evidence in last week’s 3-0 friendly defeat in Sweden.
It will be the neighbours’ second match of the tournament with Wales facing Slovakia and England taking on Russian Federation on Saturday.
WALES’ main man Gareth Bale has ratcheted up the tension with Group B rivals England – accusing the Three Lions of lacking the passion and pride that is ingrained in the Welsh squad.
And Coleman says he also expects referees to ensure Bale gets the necessary protection during the tournament.
“So you need to knee where they are at all times”.
“It’s important we have as many of our squad available, and I’ll be keen to start after my contribution in the qualifiers”. It is all about that first game and that is the challenge for us. We have a good team, whenever you pull the shirt on to play for your country you give it everything and I’m no different. We have won ugly at times. “We all get on so well, we are like brothers. We know where their strengths are and where their weaknesses are”. We never improved our football, we improved our levels of concentration, focus and we stuck to a game plan and that was not always pretty.
We are unsure of the goalkeeper in Coleman’s dream team, but it does feature Cafu, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Moore and Roberto Carlos in defence, a midfield of Zico, Socrates, Bobby Charlton and George Best, with Pele and Diego Maradona playing up front.
“Physically we weren’t ready because some of the lads hadn’t played for a long time so I’m not anxious about a loss of form”.
“A single goal could be crucial and we have seen how much Wales have looked to Bale for those crucial breakthroughs over the last couple of years”.
‘It was a gritty, determined display with a bit of quality, ‘ Coleman added.
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Coleman acknowledged that Napoli’s Marek Hamsik, who will captain his nation in Bordeaux, fulfilled a similar leading role for Slovakia.
