Bale Confident of Wales’ Success

On a day when it emerged that Chris Gunter’s parents are going to have to miss the wedding of his brother, their own son, in order to follow the Wales defender’s exploits in the semi-final in France, Gareth Bale demonstrated a far better grasp of forward planning.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s clash with Portugal in Lyon, Bale explained how he was so confident of Wales making an impact at Euro 2016 that he refused to allow his holiday to be booked before the end of the tournament.

“I fully believed that we could do something at this championship and that is why I booked my holiday for 11 July – the day after the final,” Bale said. “Look at the fairytales of Greece and Denmark [at Euro ’92 and 2004] and you think: ‘Why can’t we do it?’

“We grew up as a team in qualifying, and we really learned a lot from our first two games here against Slovakia and England. We were a bit tentative against Slovakia and the England defeat was disappointing. We didn’t play our own game and we got sucked into it all a bit. Since then, we have really progressed and got a lot more confident. We have believed more and more as we have got the results.”

And the best bit of detail from that Guardian story? Midfielder Joe Ledley is due to get married on Saturday, the day before the final.

Category: Football