England face Wales in a friendly on Thursday, but Wales manager Craig Bellamy has praised the decision to appoint German Thomas Tuchel as Three Lions manager.
Proud Welshman Craig Bellamy insists ‘everyone gets caught up’ in Thomas Tuchel being German when it’s all about winning.
Wales manager Bellamy laughed off questions about Tuchel’s nationality, insisting England needed to find the best person for the job. Bellamy vowed to upset Tuchel’s England at Wembley in Thursday night’s friendly, but the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager insists they can win next summer’s World Cup.
Former Wales striker Bellamy said: “Everyone gets caught up in this. What’s the most important thing for England? I don’t think it’s important. It’s about getting the best talent.”
“When the best manager happens to be from your country, it’s a win-win. I believe it should always be the best person, but it doesn’t matter where you’re from. You just get the best person who can help you get the moment you want. England have a top manager who won the Champions League.”
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“They have a great team, which puts them in the right system. If you look at Spain, did they have the best players? No, they went in a different direction that suited the way the coach wanted to play.”
“There is an expectation on me to qualify, and that’s natural. You want that expectation, but you don’t run away from it. You don’t have the right to win. You have the right to expect to win. We always talk about pressure as a privilege. For an experienced manager like this now, that’s normal.”
Bellamy also said England have the best player in the world in Harry Kane, who has been prolific under Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany. “One of my best friends coaches him. We have players who played with him. I know him well. I think he’s the most complete player I’ve seen at the moment,” Bellamy said.
“But we’re here to play our brand of football in difficult conditions in a great place like Wembley. That’s exciting. We’re not here as tourists to enjoy this opportunity. We’re here to be the best version of ourselves.”
England faced Wales at the last World Cup in Qatar, at Euro 2016 and in a friendly in 2020, with the Three Lions winning all three. Wales have not won at Wembley since 1977. Wales veteran Ben Davies said: “If you look back at that game in Qatar, we definitely weren’t at our best. It’s not just the result, we weren’t at our best and what got us there.”
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“But the whole group is confident that we can play better and perform better than last time. The 2016 game was painful because it was last minute and it was a tough game. The friendly was a tough game, but we will evaluate ourselves better.”
“It’s definitely in our hearts. It’s a sense of pride. We definitely came here looking to win, even if it’s a friendly, but there’s also a competitiveness to it.”
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