Dark days have helped Wales thrive- Coleman

Wales manager Chris Coleman believes his side’s recent success at Euro 2016 has come down to the years of struggle that they had to endure.

Coleman’s side face Portugal in the semi-finals in Lyon on Wednesday – a feat that looked impossible five years ago, when they dropped to a record low world ranking of 117.

The 46-year-old also talked about his own ‘dark days’ as a manager when he took charge of second tier Greek side Larissa, claiming that this experience also made him stronger.

“All this, where we find ourselves now doesn’t happen overnight you know. The players and the bonds they have together, that togetherness. That’s not just because we’re having a great tournament. It’s easy now to say that we’ve got good team spirit.

“Everybody has good team spirit on a shiny day when you’re winning. Hasn’t always been the case for us. All that team spirit you see, that’s real. But that came from the darker days where it wasn’t so easy for us. Bale, he’s exactly the same as the rest of the players in that,” Coleman said.

“When I looked at the tournament and I looked at the group we were in. I thought we were capable of getting out of the group. I don’t think it was presumptuous of me to think like that. I know football, and anything can happen. But I thought if we could get it right, and we could get out of the group, you never know who you’re going to get in that draw in the 16. And then there’s the quarter final right there. Was that a possibility? I thought it was.

“I told the players that. I told them when we arrived in the quarter final, I said I genuinely thought that we’d arrive here. I didn’t know what would happen after that if I’m to be honest with you. I just know that we’ve got a good team.

“So I meant everything I said about the players not being here for a holiday. Worse thing that could have happened to us is we never got our game right for this tournament. Having to work, having to wait so long for it.

“Did so well in the campaign and have the campaign fall flat on our face. That would have been a tough one for us. Huge step backwards for us. I’ve said before, everybody thinks that the end of this tournament is the end of this journey, it’s not. It’s part of the learning for us” he added.

Meanwhile, captain Ashley Williams has said that they will be treating Portugal with respect, but will not only focus on Cristiano Ronaldo.

“I think it’s obvious that he’s one of the greatest players in the world. But they do have other weapons in their team. So we’re not obsessing over him. I think we do our work and we pay them the respect that they deserve and we’re try to nullify them as a team as we have done all tournament.”