Wales’ Harry Wilson has expressed the importance of the squad’s togetherness ahead of their EURO 2020 clash with Turkey in Baku.
The Red Wall are set to be outnumbered in the Baku Olympic Stadium, as a large attendance of Turkey fans are expected to make the short journey to the Azerbaijan capital.
Rob Page’s men opened their campaign rescuing a 1-1 draw against Switzerland, while Turkey succumbed to a disappointing 3-0 loss to an impressive Italy.
Despite the number of Turkey fans in attendance making the fixture similar to an away game, Wilson insisted that that the closeness of the Wales squad will play a big part.
“Of course, we’re going to use the togetherness we have in the squad to get us through the game,” he said.
“But I see the thousands of Turkey fans that are going to be there as a positive because these last 12-18 months have been very different.
“When you’re playing without the fans, the atmosphere isn’t there. I know the Turkey fans are loud and passionate and will make a lot of noise.
“It’d be fantastic if we can quiet them down and come away with the result that we want.”
Wales head into the fixture with a point from their opening game and will be buoyed by their performance late in the game, where they pushed for a winning goal.
Wilson expressed that spirits are high in the Wales camp and feels a draw is a positive start to the campaign.
“I feel the first game of the tournament is a must-not-lose and we got a point, which I think proves to be a good point.
“There’s definitely more pressure on the Turkey game than there would be if we’d have won the other day, but I feel we go into every game wanting to win and if we do that against Turkey, it’ll put us in a really good position to progress from the group.
“We have to take confidence and the positives from that game into the Turkey game.
“We all watched their game against Italy, which was a difficult game. The Italians looked very strong. We know what threat Turkey pose and the players they have, but we have the belief that we can go into any game with the team that we’ve got that we can beat anyone on our day.
Wales’ final game in the group is the challenging prospect of facing Italy in Rome, which makes the need for a positive result against Turkey even greater.
Playmaker Wilson feels that a win on Wednesday would put his side in a great place to progress into the knockout stages.
“I think if we win, it’ll put us in a very good position,” he expressed.
“If we can win on Wednesday, we’re in a good place going into the Italy game. We’ve all seen how good the Italians are, that’s going to be a difficult game in Rome.
“If we can go into that game with four points, we’ll be in a fantastic place.”
(Featured Image: Lewis Mitchell)
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