Fans inspired us to victory, says Gareth Bale

Wales won 2-1 at the Stade de Bordeaux to start their Euro 2016 campaign on a high.

Bale opened the scoring with a fabulous free-kick on 10 minutes and substitute Hal Robson-Kanu struck the winner nine minutes from time after Slovakia’s Ondrej Duda had levelled on the hour.

The result, coupled with England’s 1-1 draw with Russia in Marseille, means Wales top Group B ahead of Thursday’s showdown with the Three Lions in Lens.

And Bale says the Welsh fans share the credit for the result.

The massed ranks of supporters produced a stirring rendition of Land of my Fathers with 15 minutes to go and the Real Madrid star says that inspired the final push to victory.

"It definitely helped us,” he said. “Like I've said before there's no other fans like the Welsh.

“No other country would think of doing things like that to lift the team.

“We were under the cosh a bit towards the end but our fans were the 12th man and pulled us through."

Despite his personal contribution with the goal and a part in Robson-Kanu’s winner, Bale said the win was down to the hard work of the whole team.

"For us there was only one game and that was the Slovakia game, we weren't concentrating on anything else,” said the 26-year-old.

“We just worked hard as a team, ran until we couldn't run any more.

“We've just given everything for each other and that's why we got the result.

“Obviously on a personal level it's great to get the goal but it really doesn't matter who gets the goals – we just want the points.

“We want the wins and we want to go as far as we can in this tournament.

“We're all together and we all work hard together. It's about the team, not about individuals."

The win means Chris Coleman’s men are in a strong position to qualify for the knockout stages but Bale rejected suggestions that the pressure is now off.

"We are just going to concentrate on the next game,” he said. “We want to win the game, we want to play well and we'll be preparing for the next four days for the next game and no matter who it is we're trying to win.

“We understand it's going to be a derby, it's going to be feisty,” he added. “But we'll prepare well. We're concentrating on ourselves and nobody else and we'll be ready for the game."