Chris Coleman says Wales will be fearless when they face Belgium

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It was the final question of the press conference, came via a Belgian journalist, and Chris Coleman decided the time had come to politely make a point after spending long enough extolling the qualities of Marc Wilmots’ team. “We speak a lot about Belgium, they need to concentrate on us also,” the Wales manager said. “We won’t be just inviting you guys into our backyard and saying get on with it. We’ll have something to say for sure.”
The message from Coleman is that Wales mean business, even if on Friday they are up against a team replete with household names, brimming with confidence after putting four goals past France in Paris on Sunday in a 4-3 win and ranked second in the world. “There is no fear in our camp, I promise you that,” Coleman said. “Anticipation but no fear. We want to qualify and we need to get big results against big teams. This next one is exactly that.”
Behind Belgium only on goal difference at the top of Group B and unbeaten in five European Championship qualification matches, this is Wales’s biggest game in more than a decade, stretching back to that chastening 2003 defeat by Russia, when Mark Hughes’s side lost 1-0 at the Millennium Stadium in the second leg of their Euro 2004 play-off and yet another campaign was filed in the folder marked “so near and yet so far”.
Coleman turned 45 on Wednesday but it is a measure of how immersed he has been in preparing for what he has described as the most significant game of his managerial career that it took a text message from his wife to remind him that it was his birthday. “I got a cake and we shared it out but, honestly, I had forgot,” he said.
The fact that Wales have not qualified for a major tournament in Coleman’s lifetime says it all about what has gone before and, at the same time, explains why there is such a tangible sense of excitement that the current generation, inspired by Gareth Bale, have put themselves in a position to dream about creating a little history. Beating Belgium in the Welsh capital would not guarantee a place in the finals in France next summer but it would be one hell of a step in the right direction.
“This is a new path we’re on,” Coleman said. “It’s not like we are following a team that qualified in the last campaign or the one before that. It was 1958, which is a long time. So we don’t have anything to prove to the team that came before us. We’ve got to prove to ourselves that we’re good enough. I said before we kicked a ball in this campaign that we are. We haven’t just got the talent on the pitch, we’ve got the mentality off it. That’s why I believe this group will do something special.”
Ashley Williams, the Wales captain, spoke about the sense of togetherness within the squad and how that bond has fuelled belief that anything is achievable. “Our group, unity and spirit can beat anyone,” he said. Yet while that camaraderie has been evident throughout the campaign, there is no escaping that the individual talent of Bale is the greatest weapon in Coleman’s armoury.
The Real Madrid forward wins his 50th cap against Belgium at the end of a difficult second season in Spain but Coleman rejected the idea the world’s most expensive footballer will go on to the pitch seeking to make a wider statement about his ability. “He knows with his abilities that he can change the game in a second in a good way for us and I think he thrives on that,” Coleman said.
“I think what he wants to do is impress his team-mates first and do it for Wales. There will be a lot of support here and I think that will be his audience who he’s looking to please. I don’t think he’ll be thinking worldwide, I think he’ll be thinking: ‘I’m here to do this for the Welsh public and the supporters and my team-mates’.”
It is an indication of the size of the task facing Wales that they will need Bale at both ends of the pitch. As well as the craft and guile of Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, Belgium have the physical presence of Christian Benteke and no shortage of height in the rest of the team even without the injured Marouane Fellaini, meaning that Bale will be required to defend at set-pieces.
From Wales’s point of view no stone has been left unturned on and off the pitch in order to give them the best chance of pulling off a famous victory. Annoyed with a few of the “shenanigans” that went on in Israel in March, when luggage arrived late and the escort from the airport got lost, Coleman decided to base Wales at the Vale of Glamorgan hotel to prevent Belgium from booking in and using the training pitches there. “We’ve got to look after our own little corner, haven’t we? If we can gain 1% here or there, that’s what we do,” Coleman said.
Cardiff City Stadium has also been rebranded. Giant images of the Wales players line the tunnel area and stare down from the main reception, Cymru is spelt out in mosaics in the Canton stand and the Football Association of Wales has agreed to play Zombie Nation’s Kernkraft 400 track, which has developed into a cult anthem for the supporters, to get a 33,500 sell-out crowd in the mood. Everything, in short, is in place. Now it is down to Coleman and his players to deliver.

Source: football365.com