Wales manager Chris Coleman said his side would approach Thursday’s crunch clash with England without fear after beating Slovakia 2-1 in their Euro 2016 opener.
After Gareth Bale’s stunning 10th-minute free-kick was canceled out by Slovakia’s Ondrej Duda at the Stade de Bordeaux on Saturday, Wales substitute Hal Robson-Kanu netted an 81st-minute winner to put his side in a commanding position in Group B.
If Wales beat England, who drew with Russia, they will be assured of a place in the last 16 and Coleman vowed that they would not feel any sense of inferiority against Roy Hodgson’s men.
Photo: Reuters
“When we’re at our best and give our very, very best, then we don’t need to be concerned who the opposition is,” Coleman told reporters after his country’s first major-tournament match since the 1958 World Cup. “We just concern ourselves with ourselves, because we know that we can give anyone a game.”
“I’m not going to toy about with the formation, I’m not going to play mind games,” he said. “Roy’s too experienced to fall for any of that nonsense and I don’t believe in it.”
“We’ll do what we’ve been doing,” he said. “We can stick to what we believe in. We know it’s going to be a huge challenge and a big test, but it’s one that we’ll be ready for.”
Photo: AFP
“We’re going against England, who are a top-10 team,” Coleman said. “They’ve had tournament football for a lot longer than we have. They’re used to high-pressure games. They’ve been there before. We haven’t, but that could also work to our advantage.”
Bale was the center of attention in the build-up to the match and he was quick to deliver, deceiving Matus Kozacik to notch his 20th international goal.
Slovakia’s defeat, their first in nine matches, left them with little margin for error ahead of their meeting with Russia in Lille on Wednesday.
“It depends on the game,” said beaten coach Jan Kozak, whose side are appearing at their first European Championship as an independent nation. “How the match develops, how we enter the game. I think that obviously we made some errors.”
“We would have liked it to be a different scoreline, but we will do our best to have a better result in the next game,” Kozak said.
Group A
AP, LENS, France
An early goal on Saturday by defender Fabian Schaer earned Switzerland a 1-0 win over 10-man Albania in the second Group A match of the Euro 2016 tournament.
Despite dominating most of the game, Switzerland failed to increase its lead after Albania captain Lorik Cana was sent off in the 37th minute following a second yellow card at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
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