Wales open their campaign – their first match at a first major tournament for 58 years – in Bordeaux after losing three and drawing one of their four friendlies since securing Euro 2016 qualification in October.
Advertisement
This Wales side certainly contains decent players who generally have had fine seasons.
“It’s never a one-man team”. We’re “Together Stronger’ and it’s there for a reason – we don’t just say it [the slogan] for no reason”.
‘We all work hard as one unit – we attack as one and we defend as one.
But Wales were punished again three minutes from time when Guidetti beat Williams to a bouncing ball and beat Ward, even though the goalkeeper got a hand to his shot.
“We are monitoring them daily, but as we speak all three are good”.
Asked which star from yesteryear he would like to play alongside, Bale selected Giggs, explaining: “For me, he was my hero growing up”.
“I want to enjoy myself on the football pitch, like you do when you’re a kid”, he said.
“We all get on so well, we are like brothers”.
Welcome to #EuroRank, a weeklong look at the top 25 players we expect to see at the European Championship.
“We qualified as fourth seeds and not many times does that happen”.
“Everytime we (the Welsh team) meet up for games or for camps, it kick-starts my memory from being a player and sharing dressing rooms or rooming with him”, Coleman said.
“Obviously you’d like to think you’ll get protection but all referees are different”.
“You can can sense some nerves, that’s normal because we’re in unknown territory”. This group has not only the talent, but also the right mentality to play top-level worldwide football. At least the football was competitive, despite both sides having Euro 2016 on their minds – but Wales could have done without some late challenges.
“Whenever there was a major championship on as a kid I would be sat at home watching on TV, so to be involved is unbelievable”.
They aren’t satisfied with simply qualifying – they want to make a real impact on the tournament and I’m convinced they can do that.
Drawn alongside Russia, Slovakia and old rivals England at the Euro, Coleman says that Wales will not be going to France simply to make up the numbers.
The focus is very much on getting out of the group and into the knock-out stages.
Advertisement
They may have only qualified for that fabled tournament thanks to Middle Eastern politics and a two-legged play-off against Israel, but former manager Jimmy Murphy and the golden boys of Welsh football took Brazil the distance in the quarter-finals before losing John Charles to injury and letting a 17-year-old Pelé score the victor in a 1-0 affair.
