Bale is at peace with the nation's hopes than Ronaldo

When it was put to the Wales manager Chris Coleman on Sunday that the play-within-a-play created by his nation’s European Championship semi-final – Gareth Bale versus Cristiano Ronaldo – threatens to distract from the task in hand, he replied that he couldn’t care less. "If we let outsiders make us feel a certain way that’s our problem. It’s about how you feel in yourself. The result will be what it will be…” Coleman said, in another hugely impressive pre-match discussion which demonstrated why he motivates his players so much.

Perhaps it’s easier to feel that way when your man is the one in the ascendancy. Though there is a near perfect symmetry about the confrontation between these two Real Madrid players, who have each played a monumental part in driving their nations to a Wednesday night date in Lyon, Bale looks like the ascendant figure.

His three goals in the tournament have been accompanied by a role in getting the little nation heard. It’s become something of a ritual that Bale sits down to speak at the Welsh base here on the Brittany coast and that is likely to be the case again on Monday afternoon. His candour and willingness to lob a few grenades has belied his reputation as the quiet man – beta to Ronaldo’s alpha. Wales don’t take themselves too seriously and the grin Bale wears on the field bears out how much Coleman’s Wales are enjoying all this. “You can be blinded by the lights, shrink and crawl back into the corner or stand up for your beliefs,” Coleman said.