Roy Hodgson has singled out Gareth Bale

England manager Roy Hodgson has singled out Gareth Bale as the major threat possessed by the Welsh national team at the Euro 2016.

The world’s most expensive player has managed to help his national team qualify for their first major tournament since 1958.

The national team has struggled to reach a major tournament in all these years despite having some great players like Ryan Giggs. Hence, achieving qualification was always going to be the main priority for Chris Coleman. The manager managed to take full advantage of Bale being in his prime.

Since their Euro 2016 will be the first major tournament for Wales after a very long time, there is expected to be a lot of buzz surrounding the national team. This in itself could be a major positive for the players as it will give them a lot of confidence. Hodgson says that the presence of Bale is something that the England team should counter against. However, he also stressed the fact that other players like Ashley Williams and Aaron Ramsey are also extremely good. Slovakia and Russia are the other group opponents for England. The team will be hoping to recover from their recent friendly defeat against Spain.

“One of the things we will be concerned with will be stopping Gareth Bale and limiting his chances but I would like to think we have one or two players that will occupy Welsh minds in terms of how we stop them.I’ve been very, very impressed with Wales. I think they have a strong spine. I think Ashley Williams has done a magnificent job at centre-half. They have a good goalkeeper in Wayne Hennessey.And I think Chris Coleman has put a lot of players around those that are complementing them well and make certain they can get the best out of, in particular, Gareth Bale, who is a world star,” said Hodgson.