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| Chris Coleman is already talking up his star man Gareth Bale ahead of Euro 2016 |
NO SOONER had the ball been drawn than the question of which England player is going to stop Gareth Bale in his tracks was posed.
Nathaniel Clyne? Kyle Walker? Maybe John Stones? Wales manager Chris Coleman has his own answer. No one.
"He knows he has the capacity to turn a game on its head," said Coleman. "If he is on fire, he will score a goal no matter who he is playing against."
England can consider themselves officially warned.
Euro 2016 will begin for Roy Hodgson against Russia in Marseille on June 11, but the eye was quickly drawn to the showdown with Wales in Lens five days later for reasons beyond the scripted Battle of Britain cliches.
Bale's superstar status adds an extra layer of intrigue to the first competitive meeting between the teams since Ashley Young settled a tepid Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley in favour of the hosts in September 2011.
The pressure of inspiring Wales in their first appearance at a major finals since 1958 will weigh heavy on Bale's shoulders, though life as the world's most expensive player and Real Madrid performer will prepare him for the burden that is about to be dumped on him.
"Knowing Baley, knowing his mentality, he will take it in his stride," said Coleman. "He always wants to perform for Wales, he knows how important he is to the way we play and this is our first tournament for a long, long time.
"There is a lot of pressure on him as well. Because of his mentality, he will take all of this in his stride.
"He has been in Madrid and it is a goldfish bowl. He is used to having that sort of pressure. Every time he comes back from Madrid with Wales, you could seem him growing, maturing.
"He is a lot different now than he was three years ago, I can assure you of that."
Coleman's insistence before Saturday's draw in Paris that he did not want to be paired with England for fear of it overshadowing their campaign gave way to defiance when it became a reality.
England will be favourites, though that is seldom a tag which sits comfortably with them.
"If you are England, most teams you play against, you are expected to win," said Coleman, whose side open against Slovakia in Bordeaux in Group B.
"The pressure is always on England, the pressure is always on England at tournaments to do better. So in one way, they will be looking at us and thinking the draw could have been a bit fairer for them as well.
"Everyone was asking me for my reasons for not wanting England, but it was not because of the fear we wouldn't or couldn't get a result, it was what came with it.
"Luckily, it is not the first game. I am excited and it will be great. The game will be fantastic.
"It is not a case of 'didn't we do great against England and we are coming home'. What is the point of that? It is about getting out of that group.
"Where we get the points from I do not care, honestly. We just have to get that out of the group."
The venues for all of England's games will rekindle memories - many of which they would rather forget - of France 98. There was off-field trouble in Marseille where England beat Tunisia, while Lens was the scene of a victory over Colombia.
A final group game against Slovakia - who beat reigning champions Spain in qualifying - in St Etienne conjures images of Michael Owen's brilliance, David Beckham's stupidity and that familiar crushing sense of defeat from 12 yards, this time against Argentina.
Yet Hodgson knows where the focus lies. There have been moments when his long coaching career has become intertwined with that of Coleman, although now they will be in direct confrontation.
"He was injured when I turned up at Blackburn Rovers and he was sold on even before I got a chance to see him," recalled Hodgson. "He doesn't hold that against me.
"We share a love, of course, and an appreciation of Fulham Football Club which was good to both of us in Chris as a player and manager and me as a manager.
"Of the 24 guys here, I know 15 of them, others like Marcel Koller [of Austria] played for me for Switzerland. There's a good chance that someone will have been plotting my downfall, so why not Chris?"
He will do so with a little help from Bale.
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