Chris Coleman insists Wales’ poor form heading into Euro 2016 is nothing to be concerned about.
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WALES were unable to head to Euro 2016 on a high after losing their final friendly 3-0 in Sweden.
The fitness of three players – Joe Allen, Joe Ledley and Hal Robson-Kanu – has dominated Wales’ first appearance at a major tournament for 58 years.
But Coleman said: “Had we beaten Sweden, it doesn’t guarantee anything next week”.
“The players have earned the honour of being a part of this tournament and we want them to appreciate their surroundings”.
“But it doesn’t actually guarantee us anything next weekend”.
And looking even further down the football pyramid, you find former Manchester United goalkeeper Roy Carroll, who as a Notts County player last season travels to France as the only League Two participant.
An anticipated close match between FIFA’s 26th-ranked Wales and 24th-ranked Slovakia is scheduled on Saturday, June 11 at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux as Group B competitions in the 2016 UEFA European Championship begins. ‘I’d say Ryan Giggs, he was my hero growing up, an awesome player would have been incredible for him to be on a national stage like this’.
Sweden coach Erik Hamren said he was delighted with his side’s first victory in four games, especially coming just eight days before their Euro 2016 opener against the Republic of Ireland. “The manager”, said Coleman with irony and a smile.
The bookmakers consider this game nearly too tight to call, pricing Wales at 15/8 and Slovakia at 19/10. “The boys know they’re better than that, we’re better than that”.
The teams have played nine times since 1994, with Russian Federation claiming three wins and four draws to just edge the head-to-head.
“But we must raise ourselves considerably before the group games start, both offensively and defensively”. I think we’re trying to get used to being in a situation we’ve never been in.
“We’re going to go there and give our best, that’s all we can do”. A counter-attacking mindset with speed up front while being resilient at the back with five defenders could annoy teams like England who could put themselves in an awkward position after stretching their boundaries forward and on the wings as they look to press on the offensive.
“Joe Ledley is the one where when he did the injury at the end of the season we are all thinking the same thing”.
But Williams was on the end of a few crunching challenges, and he admitted he was glad to get through the game unscathed against the physical Swedes.
“He’s walked off the pitch and he’s fine”.
But I don’t want the important thing for them to be that they got there, and that’s the job done.
“We were a bit naive, and we haven’t been naive for a long time”.
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“Nobody expected anything, and now we go into this round of three games as underdogs”.
