Chris Coleman relaxed and upbeat ahead of epic Battle of Britain with Roy’s England
Wales boss is confident his side will do him proud when they face Roy's boys in in Lens and not bow to pressure
CHRIS COLEMAN says all the pressure will be on England in today’s epic Battle of Britain.
And the Wales boss reckons it is time to get down to business after a week-long war of words.
The Dragons go into the game in relaxed mood with three points already banked from their win over Slovakia.
But Roy Hodgson’s men know anything other than victory will leave their hopes of reaching the knockout stage in the balance.
That puts extra heat on the Three Lions — on top of the pressure they carry into every tournament.
Coleman said: “There’s a lot expected of England because they’ve had a lot of great players down the years.
“Every time they go into a tournament there’s expectation.
“But our expectation comes from within us. We expect to compete with the best.
“We’ve won the first one. The only pressure for us is complacency, because we no way think our work is done.”
The build-up to the Group B clash in Lens has been dominated by talk from the Welsh camp about passion.
Gareth Bale stoked the flames last week and several others have now waded in.
But Coleman reckons the time has come for the football to do the talking.
Cookie said: “Let’s get at it. I’m looking forward to a good game of football. It doesn’t matter what anybody said.
“Let’s get down to business. Whatever has been said, that’s their opinion, that’s up to them. They’re grown men.
“We can’t worry about upsetting the opposition, whoever they are.”
Coleman hopes to have a fully-fit squad to choose from and knows exactly how he wants to set up his team.
That is in stark contrast to Hodgson, who has been tinkering with formations in the last few weeks.
The Wales chief said: “Maybe they’re not settled, or maybe they’re a bit more settled than we think they are.
“If we’ve found a weakness, we’ll concentrate on that.
“We know what we’re good at. We’ll do what we’ve been doing for two years.
“That’s what got us here. I can tweak the formation a little bit but we haven’t trained with three different formations to play England.
“They can play in lots of different formations.
“We’ll stick to doing what we do best, which has made us a good team.”
While things have been getting tetchy in the lead-up to the game, Coleman wants his players to keep their cool on the pitch.
He said: “It’s alright ranting and screaming and shouting and then kicking someone and getting sent off. There is nothing brave about that. You have to control your emotions.
“If you go to ten men against a team like England you’re asking for trouble.
“I’m not going to be aggressive in my team-talk.
"I want them focused and calm.”
Having said that, he is expecting the game between the rivals to be a proper derby.
He said: “If I’m honest I’d be looking forward to a bit of a dust-up.
“I’m not talking about the stupid stuff, I’m talking about 100mph football — which is what we’re used to aren’t we?
“In international football you don’t really get that.
“There are spurts, it’s very fast and then it slows down.
“It can be very tactical, like a game of chess at times.
“Maybe with these two on Thursday we’ll see a reverse of that and they’ll just go at it.”
Coleman called England a ‘big brother’, but said his men will not be overawed.
The former Fulham boss added: “This is a big, big test for us, a great challenge.
“It’s one we’re looking forward to, there is nothing for us to fear.”