Bale can cope with Wales pressure – Coleman

Bordeaux (AFP) – Gareth Bale can handle the huge focus on his performances for Wales at Euro 2016, manager Chris Coleman declared on Friday on the eve of their opening match against Slovakia.

Bale, 26, is tipped to be one of the stars of the tournament in France, having scored seven of Wales’s 11 goals in qualifying to inspire his country to a first major championship finals since 1958.

Both Slovakia coach Jan Kozak and star player Marek Hamsik have identified Bale as Wales’s key threat, but Coleman believes that being the centre of attention will not unsettle him in the slightest.

“We’ve grown used to that really,” the Wales manager told reporters at Stadium Bordeaux, where his side face Slovakia on Saturday.

“Once you become the most expensive player in the world and you’re playing for Real Madrid — he’s won two Champions Leagues in the last three years — it’s normal for the opposition to look at Gareth Bale and pay him a lot of attention. They need to pay him a lot of attention.

“So we’re used to it, he’s used to it. Because luckily for us, if you’ve got a player who’s playing where he plays every week, coming into this tournament, he’s used to all the spotlight.

“He’s used to having the eyes of the world on him and everything he does, on and off the pitch. He’s looking forward to this and so are we.”

Coleman said that Joe Ledley, Joe Allen and Hal Robson-Kanu were all fit after injury problems, the former having fractured his leg a month ago while playing for Crystal Palace.

All three took part in the section of the pre-match training session at Stadium Bordeaux that was open to the media, which comprised a warm-up and some stretching exercises.