England vs Wales: Gareth Bale feeds off Wales team spirit in a way he cannot at Real Madrid

Winger loves being part of the collective when he is with national side

Gareth Bale celebrates with the Wales bench after scoring against Slovakia (Getty)

The reality of modern football in Europe is that club sides are more unified and coherent than international sides. That is why teams at Euro 2016, at least in the earlier stages, do not play football as structured or as patterned as in the big club competitions.

And yet Gareth Bale may well feel the opposite. He won the biggest club competition of them all just 18 days ago, when Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid on penalties in Milan. He won it in 2014, too. But for him the strongest bonds are not with the players he sees every day at Valdebebas, his base for the last three years, or the ones with whom he has won five trophies, including two European Cups.

It is with Wales, “playing with my friends”, that Bale’s heart really quickens. Even though he only sees these team-mates and these coaches every few months, with long breaks over summer and winter. Even though this is a squad of mixed ability, of players of different backgrounds and levels.

These are the players that Bale will share the pitch with in Lens on Thursday, when Wales face England in what is surely their biggest football match as a nation since they lost a World Cup quarter-final to Pele’s Brazil 58 years ago. A result will send Wales into the knock-out rounds and for Bale that would mean as much as any trophy won with Real Madrid.

“It’s a different atmosphere and a different team completely,” Bale says, comparing club with country. “Madrid is Madrid and things happen there that just happen.”

Bale is already onto his third Real Madrid manager in three seasons. He has at times been jeered by the fans, becoming a political football between Florentino Perez and the supporters. Real Madrid is a warped celebrity bubble and the reality is that as much as Bale is competing with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, he is also competing with Isco, James Rodriguez and, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo.

 For us everything is about the team. If somebody can’t get back, I’ll fill in. If I have to make an unselfish run to create space I’ll do that

&#13; <p>Gareth Bale</p>&#13;

“You have to excite the fans,” Bale says. “You have to play well for the fans, and even if you’re winning 6-0 you have to keep trying to score.” The contrast with his international side is clear.

“With Wales it is more about the team. We have to work hard as a team. We haven’t got the luxury of having the choice of anybody [to pick from]. We have a very good team with very good players, but we have to work hard together to get victories.”

This is why anyone who says that Wales are one-man or even two-man team gets them radically wrong. They all work ferociously hard for one another, and that applies as much to the €100million man as to the rest of them. When Bale and Ramsey said on Tuesday afternoon that no England player would get in the Wales side, it spoke to the fact that no part is disposable from this machine that Chris Coleman has built.

“Gorau chwarae cyd chwarae” is the FAW’s Welsh slogan, plastered all over their converted leisure centre base in Dinard where Wales are staying. In English it translates as ‘the best play is team play’. Nothing could be further from the galactico ethos.

You have to excite the fans. Even if you’re winning 6-0 you have to keep trying to score. With Wales it is more about the team

&#13; <p>Gareth Bale on the differences between Wales and Real </p>&#13;

So when Wales take the field in Lens on Thursday Bale will not just be waiting up front for someone to pass him the ball. He will be tracking back, running the channels, trying to drag English defenders with him to open up space for team-mates. Whatever the team needs.

“I don’t know too much about England, and whether they are individuals, but for us literally everything is about the team,” Bale says. “If somebody can’t get back, I’ll fill in. If I have to make an unselfish run, or not get the ball, to create space I’ll do that. It’s the same for all of us. We are united as one, we will do anything for each other, and I think that is the big difference for us.”

Bale will likely have the England centre-backs in front of him today and Eric Dier snapping at his heels but the closer he is marked, the more space for Aaron Ramsey and the rest to exploit. “I will just move their player out of the way and create some space,” Bale smiles. “It doesn’t bother me. If I don’t get the ball I will stand on the wing, he can stand next to me and there will be a massive hole in the middle.”

Gareth Bale (left) and Joe Ledley enjoy a laugh in training (Getty)

Of course, it is easy to speak like this but Bale’s words are backed up by his actions. When he put Wales 1-0 up with his free-kick in Bordeaux there was no self-glorifying shirt-off celebration. He sprinted over to his team-mates on the bench.

“For me it felt like a historic moment,” Bale explains. “The first time that we scored in the Euros. To share it with everybody, to have everybody there celebrating, was an amazing moment.”

No other player in the Wales squad could have scored that free-kick, but Bale is delighted to use his own abilities and experiences to help the others. Those two Champions League finals mean he knows how to deal with big-game pressure, and has been advising his team-mates accordingly.

“I’ve spoken to one or two of the boys, and a few have come up to me as well. I’ve given them a bit of advice, how to help them not be so nervous, try to ease the pressure and enjoy it.”

Bale’s close friend Luka Modric said on Sunday that he felt more pressure playing for Croatia than he does for Real Madrid. Bale tries to see it differently, revelling in the company of his close friends on international duty.

“I try to take the pressure out of it and think of it as another game,” he says. “You’re playing football, trying to enjoy it with your friends. I am playing with my friends, and you don’t want to look back thinking I could have done this or that.”

That is why whatever else Bale goes on to achieve at club level, the next three weeks looks like the defining period. Nothing matters to him more than this, and if he can help Wales to get through to the last 16, or beyond that, it would mean the world even to one of Europe’s top players.

“Everything about Wales is about pride and passion to represent the country, and when we put on the shirt there is no bigger honour for us,” Bale says. “You can see when we sang the national anthem it was absolutely ridiculous. Everyone was gripping each other in the line. We had goosebumps and everyone was crying on the pitch after. That is just Wales. We play for the shirt and the dragon. We give everything we’ve got.”