‘Career highlight’ for captain Bale ahead of Wales’ Euro return

Wales’ forward Gareth Bale speaks at a press conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AFP)

Wales and Gareth Bale head into their second straight European Championship with aspirations kept in check after their surprising run to the semi-finals in 2016. Five years later Bale will captain his country having taken over from the emblematic Ashley Williams who wore the armband five years ago in the run to the last four and defeat to eventual winners Portugal. Wales start their campaign against Switzerland today in Baku. “It’s going to be a massive honour to lead your country out in a major tournament. It’s going to be one of the highlights of my career,” Bale, a four-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid, said. “I’m looking forward and I’m excited. The team talk will come naturally to me in the huddle tomorrow,” he said. Switzerland have a more consistent past in reaching finals but have failed to get further than the last 16 in their previous three tournaments — the 2014 and 2018 World Cups and Euro 2016. “We have high expectations from ourselves and also from our public,” captain Granit Xhaka said. “We proved we can make it, this time we don’t want to talk, we want to do it, and achieve it,” he added. The pair will compete with Italy and Turkey for a place in the last 16, in just their third appearance at a major tournament. “We know the qualities of Italy, being such a big nation with such a history. Switzerland are a top 10 ranking team in the world,” Bale said. “Turkey have proven over the last 12 months because they’ve beaten some big teams as well. It’s difficult to say who the favourite is. I don’t think one stands out,” he added. Recently Bale has found it difficult scoring for his country, who are 17th in the FIFA rankings, and is without an international goal since October 2019. Despite his barren run of 11 matches in the red shirt he finished the club season with six goals in as many Premier League games while on loan at Tottenham from Real Madrid. “I feel good, very sharp, I feel ready to go,” he said. “I scored quite a few goals in the last three to four months of the season and I felt the performances were getting better and better each time. I’ve timed my fitness to perfection hopefully and I can continue that in the tournament,” he added. This weekend, Xhaka will face former Arsenal team-mate Aaron Ramsey, who left the Emirates Stadium for Juventus in 2019. “I don’t see too much danger on Saturday. If we focus and play as we want then there’s no danger,” Xhaka said. “We have huge respect for Wales. A lot of their players play abroad, in the Premier League, who I have played alongside like Aaron Ramsey, who is a very skilful player,” he added. Meanwhile, Wales’ interim coach Robert Page said Ramsey is “fully fit and raring to go”. Ramsey was a standout at Wales’ historic Euro 2016 campaign but he has been plagued by injuries this season. He did not train on Thursday, but Page said that was part of the plan. “No issues with Aaron whatsoever. He said yesterday he’s in a good place mentally and physically,” he told reporters. “I spoke to him a month ago about what he needed to get into the right frame of mind. There was always a plan in place of how many minutes we needed to achieve with one eye on Switzerland. The medical team have to take an enormous amount of credit. Today we’re sat here with 26 players fully fit and raring to go and Aaron falls into that category, he’s ready.” Page is in charge of the side in the absence of Ryan Giggs, who faces charges of assaulting two women and he said the two had been in touch.