Wales looking to take Euro 2016 form into World Cup qualifiers

As Chris Coleman reflected on a summer when he admitted his head had been turned by the prospect of a job in the Premier League, the Wales manager cast his mind back to those extraordinary scenes in Cardiff after Euro 2016, when more than 200,000 people lined the streets to welcome the team home, and spoke about how his "desperation" to experience more of the same had fuelled his desire to stay.

Speaking candidly and passionately on the eve of Wales’s opening 2018 World Cup qualifying match against Moldova in Cardiff tonight, Coleman insisted his enthusiasm was as strong as ever and sounded hell-bent on doing everything in his power to guide the country to the finals in Russia, after which he intends to step down as manager, come what may.

Coleman does not expect any sort of hangover from their success at the European Championship. The importance of that was conveyed to the players on the first day they reported back.

Coleman also knows the qualification campaign will be different this time around. He made the point that Wales, on the back of reaching the semi-finals at Euro 2016, are now seen as a scalp.

They are the top seeds in Group D, ranked 11th in the world, and the manager expects opponents to be much more cautious in their approach as a result, especially in the home fixtures, where Wales may need to be patient when it comes to breaking down teams.

Moldova should be obliging opponents for a side with Wales’s ambitions. They are ranked 165th in the world, sandwiched between Papua New Guinea and Belize, and picked up only two points out of a possible 30 in their Euro 2016 qualification campaign.

In tonight’s other Group D encounter, Georgia host Austria in Tbilisi. – (Guardian service)