Best of British at football... but rubbish at team photos

GARETH BALE admits Wales are rubbish at posing for pre-game team pictures.

Wales have become a photographer’s nightmare with their wonky line-ups but Bale refused to give the game away when asked if it has become a deliberate prank.

Bale laughed and feigned ignorance at the suggestion yesterday, but scenes in Vienna before the game against Austria on Thursday suggest the players know exactly what they are doing.

The Real Madrid star wore a cheeky smile as he squatted down at the Ernst-Happel Stadium (above) as one of seven front row players, with only four left standing. Chris Gunter was alone on the right, James Chester failed to put his arm round the shoulder of Ashley Williams, while Ben Davies, Neil Taylor and Bale were the only three to place their fingers on the grass in traditional fashion. It was just the latest car crash of a photograph, with the wider world first starting to cotton on that something was amiss during the Euro 2016, when Wales never lined up straight.

Jovially probed about the latest dodgy picture and whether it was an in-joke, Bale replied grinning: ‘I don’t know what you’re on about.’

The question came back: ‘So you are just rubbish at team photos?’

‘I think it must just be that, yeah,’ he said, still smiling.

Bale is likely to be wearing the same expression for snaps before today’s match against Georgia in Cardiff.