Wales captain Gareth Bale says he’s optimistic the team will qualify to the knockout stages of Euro 2020 despite been pitted alongside Italy, Turkey and Switzerland.

Wales are expected to kick-off their campaign against Switzerland on Saturday and Bale in a pre-match press conference stated that they are well-prepared for the tournament.

Bale is one of eight survivors from the Wales squad that reached the last four in France when Chris Coleman was in charge, and the Real Madrid star is looking no further than the crunch first game against the Swiss. 

“I think it’s similar,” said Bale when asked at his pre-match press conference about Wales’ expectations heading into Euro 2020 compared to last time out.

“Coming on the back of 2016 people will argue that maybe we should be doing things, but we have a different team and it’s a different tournament.

“We have a very difficult group to get out of, which we had last time.

“We know the qualities of Italy being such a big nation with the history. Switzerland are a top-ranked team and Turkey have proven over the last 12 months they’ve beaten some big teams as well.

“It’s difficult to say who the favourite is, but we’ve got some very difficult games ahead and we’ve prepared for everyone.

“Our mentality is to try and get out of the group – and we’ll take it from there.”