Wales v Slovakia: A moment to treasure but it might be a match to forget

Shortly before 5pm this evening, 6pm here in France, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau will reverberate around the Stade de Bordeaux and more than one Welsh supporter will have a tear in the eye.

Only then will it actually sink in for most fans, and possibly the players and management, that this is actually happening – Wales are actually a part of a major football tournament.

The eyes of Europe and much of the world will be on Chris Coleman’s men as they take on Slovakia in their Euro 2016 debut.

And Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey will pick up where John Charles and Ivor Allchurch left off at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

The historic nature of the occasion will affect some more than others and Coleman has told the players to savour that feeling before concentrating on the task in hand.

The Wales boss said earlier this week: “I always thought that if we got there I would be saying ‘don’t play the occasion’ but we need to remember a little bit the occasion and what it means and how we got here.

“And now we are here we need to saviour it as it will come and go. Saturday will come and go.”

Once the action gets under way, however, it’s unlikely to be a feast of free flowing football, as Coleman admits.

He has demanded that his side go back to basics, to be ‘ruthless’ and ‘horrible’ and win ugly – just like they did on several occasions during the qualifying campaign.

Coleman said: "We need to realise that you can’t go there thinking ‘isn’t this brilliant we are here, let’s have a super time, come what may, as we have done so well to be here'.

"We need to remember how good we can be and reproduce that and be demanding of each other."

Slovakia, personified by Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel, are well versed in football’s dark arts.

They will be physical in defence and they will sit back and look to hurt Wales on the counter-attack – hoping for a moment of magic from star man Marek Hamsik.

“I’ve watched them a lot and there are dangers there,” said Coleman.

“They are a good team. Mention Wales and people talk about Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey. If you look at Slovakia it is Hamsik.

“People will look at it and say Wales will win that as Bale plays for Madrid and Ramsey Arsenal. It is not like that.

“You look at the rankings and their form. They have been playing well and look strong.”

Wales won’t want to over-commit in attack themselves and it promises to be a tight affair, perhaps dominated more by the fear of losing the all-important opening game than the desire to win it.

Wales’ best chance of breaking the deadlock is likely to be from a set-piece from Bale and nobody would bet against him coming up trumps on the biggest stage.

Coleman added: “We need a gritty determined display with a bit of quality.

“What we need to think about is that we are good enough to be here.

“There is nothing to be afraid of in anyone we face in the tournament if we are at our best and doing what we’re good at.

“If we get a bit complacent and think we are something we are not then we won’t come out of it happy.”

My gut feeling is that both sides will have to settle for a draw and that would be a reasonable outcome – leaving the hopes and dreams of both nations very much intact.

Wales (probable): Hennessey; Taylor, Davies, Williams, Chester, Gunter; Edwards, Allen, Ramsey; Bale, Vokes.

Slovakia (probable): Kozacik; Pekarik, Skrtel, Durica, Hubocan; Pecovsky, Kucka; Mak, Hamsik, Weiss; Nemec