Williams positive that Wales are looking good for the Euro qualifiers

ASHLEY Williams feels Wales have laid a solid base for their forthcoming European Championship campaign despite missing out on Nations League promotion.

Wales’ hopes of joining the elite of European football were ended by streetwise Denmark opponents, who won 2-1 in Cardiff on Friday night.

Ryan Giggs’ side had to settle for second place in the group and will be in League B again when the competition resumes in 2020, while Denmark also guaranteed themselves a Euros play-off spot if they do not qualify through the conventional process.

But skipper Williams, looking ahead to the start of European Championship qualification in March, said: ‘These competitive games have been good.

‘No-one really knew what was going on when the Nations League was brought in. But it’s been worthwhile for us because we’re in a bit of a transition with all the new players.

‘The last few camps we’ve got to know each other really well, on and off the pitch, and you can see the way the boys are progressing.

‘It stands us in good stead to go into the (Euro 2020) qualifiers. We want to keep as much momentum as we can and try and qualify through that now.’

Wales head to Albania next with manager Giggs expected to make changes for Tuesday’s friendly in Elbasan. He confirmed that Chris Gunter will become Wales’ most capped player by making his 93rd appearance in Albania and breaking Neville Southall’s record.

But several of Giggs’ exciting batch of young players are set to feature and gain more experience ahead of the European Championship campaign.

‘I don’t know if there will be changes, but it’s a chance to extend this camp,” Stoke defender Williams said. At international level you’re not playing week-in week-out with everyone. But we’ll spend more time with each other now and play against a very good team.

‘Losing to Denmark is nothing to get down about, they are one of the toughest teams I’ve played against for a while at international level. They’ve played together a long time and they don’t lose. It’s not like we didn’t play well, but we’ll learn a lot from them too.’