Wales have become one of the surprise packages ahead of the Euro 2016 after qualifying victories for this major tournament.
It has given enough confidence for midfielder Jack Collison, who says that the team can repeat the heroics of teams like Greece. France will be holding the next European championships in the summer of 2016. A number of teams like Germany will be heading into the tournament as favourites, but there are also a few dark horses like Wales and Belgium in the list. Propelled by the inform Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale, the national team recently achieved qualification to the tournament by finishing only behind Belgium.
Even though this means that Wales could potentially face a tough team in the group stages of the tournament, they have already overseen a number of challenges and it could give them a lot of confidence. Greece came into the Euro 2004 not expected to even qualify for the knockout stages, but they ended up winning the tournament. Collison reckons that Wales are good enough to come up with such a surprise in this upcoming competition. The major strengths for Greece back then was a strong defence, as they did not concede even a single goal in the knockout stages on the way to the title.
“Greece did the impossible and won the tournament in 2004. It would be far less of a shock if Wales did the same next summer. Like Greece, the key to Wales’s success is being hard to beat. They seem to enjoy defending. They are no longer a soft touch at set pieces. They enjoy putting their bodies on the line. The will to win seems to be strong than ever,” said Collison. Wales may have a strong attack with the likes of Bale, but they also need to concentrate on the defensive aspect.