Euro 2020: Wales kick off campaign against Switzerland

Wales will kick off their Euro 2020 campaign this afternoon against Switzerland in Baku having seen one of the tournament favourites Italy looking ominously strong last night against Turkey with a 3-0 win.

The other two sides in the Welsh group met in the tournament’s opening fixture, 12 months after initially planned and it was the Italians who scored three goals in one of the most one sides games that the final stages of a tournament can produce.

Wales though should not be downhearted ahead of the game despite the Italian’s dominance.   The performance of the Turkish will be a boost to both of the sides meeting this afternoon and both will fancy their chances against that side based on last night’s showing alone.   If that is the thinking then a point will not be a bad result for either today, a win almost certainly moving them within a point of qualification for the next stages of the tournament – mission number one if you like.

For Wales, after 58 years without reaching a tournament before the last Euros in 2016, it is a second successive European Championship and hopefully the first step towards a second successive semi final place.

Wales all-time leading goalscorer Gareth Bale will captain the Welsh and he told the BBC ahead of the game “It’s going to be a massive honour to wear the captain’s armband.

“It’s a huge honour anyway but to be leading your country out into a major tournament is going to be one of the highlights of my career.”

It may be 11 games since he found the back of the net for his country but that is not something playing in his mind as he added: “Like I’ve always said from when I started and when I was scoring loads of goals, it doesn’t matter who scores – it matters about the result.

“I haven’t scored for a while but I’ve made maybe six or seven assists in that time. So I’m still contributing in terms of goals.

“I’m not worried. I know where the back of a net is and hopefully if a chance arises I’ll be able to take it.”

The Wales game kicks off in Baku at 2pm UK time and is live on BBC1.