13:29
Ryan Giggs feels the win over Finland has given a boost to his team going into this match. Two victories on the trot would be a huge step towards topping the group.
“Confidence is high because of the three wins even though they’re obviously not close together,” said Giggs.
“We’ve revisited the last games and what we could do better. I’m really pleased with the momentum we’ve got at the moment which is hard to get in international football.
“It wasn’t a classic performance the other day but I was really happy with the win because we had to grind it out.”
13:17
A trio of Brooks, Bale and James makes Wales a very dangerous proposition. The amount of pace and trickier would scare any opposition defence and, if you believe everything you read, they could all be club teammates next season (that will never happen).
13:00
Starting lineups
Wales: Hennessey, C Roberts, Ampadu, Lockyer, B Davies, Morrell, Smith, Bale, Brooks, James, Moore
Subs: Ward, A Davies, Gunter, N Williams, Cabango, Lawrence, Levitt, J Williams, Robson-Kanu. Wilson, Matondo, Vaulks
Bulgaria: G. Georgiev, Cicinho, Kr. Dimitrov, Nedyalkov, Goranov, Kostadinov, Karabelyov, Karagaren, Nedelev, G. Ivanov, Kraev
Subs: TBC
12:40
Preamble
Good afternoon!
Welcome to a few hours of analysing everything Gareth Bale does in order to work out if he is still any good at football. It has been a strange few months for the Welshman as he does his level best to get out of Real Madrid, mainly irking Zinedine Zidane by saying he did not fancy a trip to Manchester for a Champions League game, which is insulting. Bale is his country’s talisman, unsurprisingly, and his influence is all the more important considering the list of absentees in Ryan Giggs’ squad. Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen, Chris Mepham, Joe Rodon and Tom Lawrence are all unavailable, so Bale will need to step things up after an underwhelming time against Finland.
Giggs will be looking to build on the win against Finland and should be relatively optimistic of doing so against a Bulgaria side short of star names and any top international quality. They did, however, draw against Republic of Ireland in the week, so they should also have a touch of confidence about themselves as they enter a new chapter.
Anyway … let us all hope for a cracker.
Kick-off: 2pm (BST)