James Chester says Wales will test anyone at Euro 2016 – even if he remains baffled by the possible permutations.
Wales’ 3-0 victory on Monday night saw them leapfrog England to take top spot in Group B and secure a last-16 tie with one of the best third-placed teams in Paris on Saturday evening.
It remains a complicated picture for Wales, who will not discover their second-round opponents until Wednesday evening, but the camp are in relaxed mood after spending a day with their families in Toulouse following the Russia rout.
Wales also owe much to the goals of Gareth Bale, who scored seven times in 10 qualifiers and now has three in the tournament itself.
Bale’s goal against Russia took him to joint-fourth on Wales’ all-time scoring list with 22, six behind record goalscorer Ian Rush.
“I’m not sure there’s a better player individually than Gareth in the tournament,” said Chester.
“We know how fortunate we are to have him in our team and if we can keep clean sheets then we know we give ourselves a real good chance.
“I can’t speak for any of the other top players in the tournament – I don’t know them – but Gareth is very passionate about playing for the national team.
“He turns up pretty much every time we have a game, which some of the top players maybe don’t do.
“I think it’s an environment that he really enjoys and we all get on really well together. As big a superstar as he is, he’s still one of the lads.”
Chester said of the possible fixtures that lie ahead, “It’s far too confusing for me.
“I just go where I’m told and if we perform like we did against Russia and keep clean sheets, which is another bonus, then we’re confident that we can make it difficult for anybody.
“The way we dug in for the game and to lose so late on against England was a big kick in the stomach. But we knew that result wouldn’t define the group.
“I said after the England game from what we’d seen of Russia I was confident we could get something from the game and that proved to be correct.”
Whereas Chester’s colleagues have been in the Wales set-up for many years – most of them playing in youth sides together – the Warrington-born defender has only been on the international scene for the last two years.
Chester, 27, owes his Welsh qualification to his Rhyl-born mother and only made his international debut two years ago, before the start of the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
“Since I’ve been here and through the qualifying campaign it was always about the next game and not looking too far ahead,” said Chester.
“That’s put us in good stead so far, so I don’t think we’ll do any different.
“We’ll do our homework on the opposition and approach it the same as we would any other game.
“I’ve been quite fortunate. I’ve not experienced the bad times that some of the lads have been through, but I’m well aware of the difficult stages that they’ve had.
“The lads told me about the low attendances they’ve had in the past, but the fans have been brilliant since I joined up.
“They’ve been great through qualifying and coming out to the tournament and helping us get to where we are.”
