Wales Team Preview – Overview
Wales qualified for their second ever major tournament by finishing runners up to Belgium in their group, a tough group which saw Bosnia-Herzegovina and Israel both finish behind them and now they are at the finals they will be there to make a big impression.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out who the main man is for Wales. Gareth Bale is a superstar of the modern game and was involved in nine of the 11 goals Chris Coleman’s men bagged in qualifying. That statistic in itself highlights how important the Real Madrid star is to the side but this is a squad packed with Premier League class who will be aiming to surprise a few just like they did in qualifying.
Statistics
Best Performance – First Appearance in 2016
Previous Appearances – 0
Qualified – Group B Runner-up
Qualifying Record
P-10 W-6 D-3 L-1 GF-11 GA-4 PTS-21
Fixtures
Wales vs Slovakia – Saturday 11th June, kickoff 17:00 at Matmut Atlantique, Bordeaux
England vs Wales – Thursday 16th June, kickoff 14:00 at Stade Felix Bollaert-Delelis, Lens
Russia vs Wales – Monday 20th June, kickoff 20:00 at Stadium Municipal, Toulouse, Toulouse
Squad
Manager: Chris Coleman
Goalkeepers: Wayne Hennessey (Crystal Palace), Danny Ward (Liverpool), Owain Fon Williams (Inverness).
Defenders: Ben Davies (Tottenham), Chris Gunter (Reading), Ashley Williams (Swansea), James Chester (West Brom), Ashley Richards (Fulham), James Collins (West Ham) & Neil Taylor (Swansea).
Midfielders: Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal), Joe Ledley (Crystal Palace), David Vaughan (Nottingham Forest), Joe Allen (Liverpool), Jonathan Williams (Crystal Palace), Dave Edwards (Wolves), George Williams (Fulham) & Andy King (Leicester) .
Forwards: Hal Robson-Kanu (Reading), Sam Vokes (Burnley), Simon Church (Nottingham Forest), Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) & David Cotterill (Birmingham City).
Betting
Wales are one of the sides I’m unsure about. They are either going to really surprise people and actually make it through to a respectable stage in the tournament or they are going to freeze on the big stage and fail under the weight of public support and attention.
Their form going into the tournament isn’t encouraging and that is a real concern. The obvious bet would be for Bale to be the top goalscorer but if Wales only score a couple and he scores one and someone else scores one then we get paid from half the stake at what are already cramped odds or worse still they don’t score at all and we lose completely.
I fancy Wales to struggle in this tournament but there isn’t a bet or a market that lures me in enough to put my money where my mouth is so I’ll swerve betting on Wales.
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