Bale and Ramsey ready to lead Wales’ qualification bid in crunch Hungary clash - 7M sport

Bale and Ramsey ready to lead Wales’ qualification bid in crunch Hungary clash



Posted Tuesday, November 19, 2019 by PA

Bale and Ramsey ready to lead Wales’ qualification bid in crunch Hungary clash

Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey are both ready to start Wales’ winner-takes-all Euro 2020 qualifying clash with Hungary on Tuesday.

Victory at the Cardiff City Stadium will guarantee Wales their place at next summer’s tournament, having reached the semi-finals on their Euros debut four years ago.

Real Madrid forward Bale spent a month on the sidelines with a calf problem prior to playing an hour of his country’s 2-0 win over Azerbaijan on Saturday but has declared himself “ready to go” in the Welsh capital.

Ramsey, who replaced Bale in Baku to make his first appearance of the campaign, could also feature from the start this time around.

“It’s a balancing act and that will obviously impact on the selection,” Wales boss Ryan Giggs told a press conference.

“Aaron and Gareth are ready to start, and so is everyone else in the squad.

“It’s not about me, getting to a major championship is about the country as a whole.

“If we can recreate what we achieved in 2016 it will be fantastic. We’ve put ourselves in a great position to qualify.

“It’s where you want to be as a player, playing in games that mean something. We know we’re up against a team that are hard-working and organised, and they need to win too.

“We need to finish the job. It will be difficult, but we’re ready for the challenge.”

Bale believes qualifying this time around could even top Wales’ achievements under Chris Coleman in France, when defeat to eventual champions Portugal in Lyon denied them a place in the final.

“The experience of qualifying for the Euros was massive,” he said.

“It was something I’d never done before and to do it again might be a bit more impressive.”

Hungary are among the hosts of next summer’s pan-European tournament and opened the new Puskas Arena with a 2-1 friendly defeat to Uruguay on Friday.

Bristol City midfielder Adam Nagy is confident his country have what it takes to overcome Wales and play two group-stage matches in front of a home crowd in 2020.

“We all know how important this is,” Nagy was quoted as saying by the Hungarian Football Federation. “This is the most important match of the year, but for many players this may be the match of their life.

“Obviously all of us have an extra motivation to play at least two group games at home. We talked about it all week that we didn’t need any more motivation, and in the opening match of the Puskas Arena we could see what kind of atmosphere we could have next May.

“It is in our own hands now on Tuesday. Wales have good players, but as a team we are stronger than them.”

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