Joe Allen insists Wales can deal with the absence of Gareth Bale and still make a success of their daunting World Cup qualifier in Serbia.
Bale will miss the tie in Belgrade on Sunday after he was given a yellow card for a tackle on John O’Shea in the 0-0 draw with Republic of Ireland in March.
It means the Real Madrid star will not be there for a game Wales cannot afford to lose after falling four points behind Group D leaders Serbia and the Republic.
But Stoke midfielder Allen is adamant manager Chris Coleman’s players can be more than the sum of their parts.
He said: “We are going to miss Gareth, there is no point hiding from that fact.
“He’s key to us and he’s a world-class player, but one of the main qualities of this group is that we’re all about team work and we are all about resilience.”
“Of course we’re going to miss Gareth. But there’s a good core group of players here who have won a lot of caps. That’s important because that experience comes into it for games like the one on Sunday.
“A lot of those lads have been in those situations before and are ready for the big atmosphere there. You have to deal with it at international level, and we’ve experienced it before home and away. To go to these sort of places under pressure is something we know about.”
Wales tweaked their tried and tested 3-5-2 system against Ireland, switching to a 4-4-2, and Allen hinted that they could hatch a bespoke plan to nullify the threats of Premier League trident Nemanja Matic, Dusan Tadic and Aleksander Mitrovic.
He said: “I like to think we have always got a ‘plan B’ even when we have him playing… You learn that and whether it’s offensively or defensively we have to deal with the Serbians in many different ways.”
Although Wales have enjoyed success as a group in reaching the semi-finals of the European Championships last summer, their worst night under the guidance of Coleman came in 2012 when they were thrashed 6-1 by Serbia.
Allen, ever the dogged competitor, is using the memories of that night as motivation to avenge that loss.
He said: “For me, it was the worst night in a Welsh shirt,” Allen said. “Some of the lads are still in the squad, some are new players, but we are a million miles away from the team that turned out that night.
“That’s a positive and I think we can draw on that going into this game. As players, you cannot help but carry that feeling of wanting to set the record straight.”
