Confident Coleman clear Wales are more than just Bale

With Wales coming into Friday’s game four points behind the Republic of Ireland, there has been much discussion as to whether this is a must win game for Chris Coleman’s men. The Welsh manager though wasn’t too worried when he met with the media in the Aviva Stadium on the eve of the Russia 2018 qualifier.

Coleman, unlike Ireland, has a full squad available to him and he was keen to stress that is wasn’t just Gareth Bale and the other boys that have come to Dublin. He talked about the trust that he has in all his team to try and get their qualifying campaign back on track. He has a squad that shone in reaching the semi-finals of the recent European championship and a team well capable of putting in a performance against the Boys in Green.

“Whatever Ireland have got planned for Gareth, it won’t be anything new that’s for sure,” said Coleman about Irish plans for the Real Madrid star who has scored four times in the campaign to date. “Think about where he plays and the level of football he is playing. There is nothing that is going to come tomorrow that he won’t be ready for.

“For the record, we had two players in the team of the tournament (at EURO 2016). One was Aaron Ramsey and the other was Joe Allen. We’ve got good players throughout.

“People are saying that it is a must win game for Wales and that it is more important game for Wales than the Republic of Ireland but it is not. There are 18 points to play for.

“Every game you play, whether you are representing Wales or Ireland, every time you go onto the pitch, every time you pull the jersey on, you have to perform. I don’t see this game any differently.

“It is not as if we are three points behind Ireland with a game to play and if we lose it is all over. I have full belief in them to perform because I thrust them. Why do I trust them? Well look what they have done. Not the tournament but way before that.

“I’m respectful of who we are up against. We are up against a good team. Ireland will be tough. I’m not worried that if we don’t get the three points that it is all over. Far from it. (There are a) lot of points and a lot of games left.”

Wales won their opening game at home to Moldova 4-0 but have failed to get another victory since then, drawing away to Austria (2-2) and at home to Georgia and Serbia (both 1-1).

“If you look in this campaign at the results, the big one was dropping two points against Georgia. We conceded in the last five minutes against Serbia but the performance was good. We got a point in Austria but that is now deemed not a good point (following Ireland’s win there).

“We have lost focus at important times. It is different for us this time around than the last time. We can hardly go under the radar anymore. We are deemed to be a scalp. People look at us and think getting something from a game against Wales now is a huge result when maybe in the past it wasn’t.”

It is 25 years since Wales’ last win over Ireland. The Boys in Green have won three times, along with three draws, since Wales’ 1-0 win in the RDS in front of 15,100 fans. Friday’s fixture has had a full house sign outside the 51,700 capacity Aviva Stadium for months and Martin O’Neill’s men come into the game buoyed by their famous win in Vienna last November.

“We’ve got a game plan,” said Coleman who has been in charge of Wales since 2012. “Ireland aren’t top of the group for nothing. We are in their backyard trying to make sure we go home with something. We are not too dissimilar teams even if we play slightly differently. In terms of passion and commitment and energy, the two teams are very similar.”

The visiting team would normally train on the pitch on the eve of the game but there was no ‘captain’s run’ in Lansdowne Road on Thursday. Coleman confirmed to extratime.ie that “we like to train at home and then we like to fly out the day before the game if it isn’t too far. That is what we’ve always done. A lot of our lads have played here before. They know what it is about.”

The Wales captain Ashley William also spoke at today's press event. For more, see Aaron Gallagher's article here: 

Ashley Williams: If we play our best game then we can get a result https://t.co/GibjFbLPqJpic.twitter.com/I1jJkjVgPV

— Extratime.ie (@ExtratimeNews) March 23, 2017