Rooney was asked about Bale’s comments following England’s 1-1 draw with Russian Federation in Marseille and was happy to play a straight bat.
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Hal Robson-Kanu scored the victor six minutes later.
“It’s going to be feisty”. But we’ll prepare well, ‘ he said.
“It affected the way the game developed, we weren’t very sure on the ball, we lost possession quite easily. We’ll concentrate on ourselves because we know if we get our game right it’s enough to get what we need to progress in the tournament”.
Real Madrid star Gareth Bale opened the scoring for Chris Coleman’s side from a free kick after ten minutes.
“I knew that whoever scored the first goal would have a great advantage because Wales have a well-organised defence and up front they have a very risky man who can make a difference”.
Bale could have had a second goal when he got a header away after latching onto Allen’s cross, but the ball bounced in front of the keeper, who prevented it from sneaking past the post.
And in response France’s most iconic building was lit up in the colours of the Welsh flag to commemorate Wales’ first victory in a major tournament for 58 years.
“We’re taking it one game at a time, but we’re not thinking about this game any more and it’s on to England”.
Each sporadic rendition of the national anthem – Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Old Land of My Fathers) – during the game was sung louder than the last, fans determined that this would not be another night of Welsh football disappointment.
“We have just worked hard as a team, we ran until we couldn’t run any more”.
“We were under the cosh a bit towards the end but our fans were the 12th man and pulled us through”.
Coleman had suffered a blow ahead of the game as first-choice goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey woke up with a back spasm and was ruled out. Coleman said before the game that his players would rise to the challenge after a disappointing run of results – and they did just that. “They big themselves up before they’ve done anything, so we’re going to go there and we believe we can beat them”.
On Bale’s contribution, Allen said: “We’re running out of words to describe Gareth”.
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“To come up with a moment like that is why we love him”. “You make substitutions, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t”, grinned delighted manager Chris Coleman after match.
