Bale pressure point as Wales look to emulate great show of 2016

Wales captain Gareth Bale insists they are under no pressure in the Euros to emulate their success of five years ago.

Wales start their campaign against Switzerland in Baku today, with Italy and Turkey completing a tough-looking Group A line-up.

Bale is one of eight survivors from the Wales squad that reached the last four in France when Chris Coleman was in charge – and the Real Madrid star is looking no farther than the crunch first game against the Swiss.

“I think it’s similar,” said Bale when asked at his pre-match press conference about Wales’ expectations heading into Euro 2020 compared to last time out.

“Coming on the back of 2016 people will argue that maybe we should be doing things.

“But we have a different team and it’s a different tournament.

“We have a very difficult group to get out of, which we had last time.

“We know the qualities of Italy being such a big nation with the history. Switzerland are a topranked team and Turkey have proven over the last 12 months they’ve beaten some big teams as well.

“It’s difficult to say who the favourite is, but we’ve got some very difficult games ahead and we’ve prepared for everyone.

“Our mentality is to try and get out of the group – and we’ll take it from there.”

Wales have had a difficult build-up to Euro 2020 off the pitch with manager Ryan Giggs on leave, as he has been since November, and Robert Page in interim charge of the squad.

Page has won four of his eight games at the helm – the only defeats coming against the world’s top two ranked teams Belgium and France – but Bale has yet to score under him.

Gareth Bale leads Wales against the Swiss today.