England vs Wales: Composed Chris Coleman keeps eyes on the bigger picture ahead of Euro 2016 meeting

Wales coach is looking forward to derby match with England but concentrating more on securing qualification

Chris Coleman is concentrating on the job in hand as his Wales side face England on Thursday (Getty)

Chris Coleman is not a man who hides his emotions. He is on the eve of the biggest game of his career, the biggest day in Welsh football since 1958, and he is not attempting to tone anything down.

If Wales beat or draw with England on Thursday they will ensure qualification for the last-16 of the European Championships, a historic achievement for a team out of tournament football for so long.

Victory would be their first over England since 1984, and Coleman is relishing the prospect, not just of a win but of “a good old-fashioned British battle”, even as he tries to keep his players focused on their jobs against England and then against Russia next week.

“For us to beat the ‘big brother’ if you like, what an achievement that is, and we haven’t done it for some time,” Coleman said. “But all along the way we have that it is not about one game. Whether we need three, four or five points to go through, that is the desired outcome. How we get it, I honestly don’t care.”

That blunt talking is typical Coleman. He knows that he must not let his players get too hyped, that they cannot “get sucked into anything untoward”. But he also knows that Wales have the best chance of winning if the game turns into a scrap.

Even on a day with Germany v Poland, this is the biggest derby of the day. Wales have unapologetically put “pride and passion” at the heart of their pre-match messaging, and Coleman wants his players to take those qualities with them onto the pitch.

“If I’m honest, I would be looking forward to a bit of a dust-up,” Coleman admitted. “I am not talking about the stupid stuff, I’m talking about 100mph game of football. Which is what we’re used to aren’t we? In international football you don’t really get that. There’s spurts and then it slows down.”

Wales celebrate Hal Robson-Kanu's winning goal against Slovakia last weekend (Getty)

“International football can be very tactical, like a game of chess at times. Maybe on Thursday, we’ll see a reverse of that, maybe they’ll just go at it. If this is one of those games where it’s a fantastic good old-fashioned British battle, I’ve got no problem with that.”

Wales are not going to come flying out at England – they have no incentive to – but they will defend ferociously, tackle hard and break quickly when they get the ball. For all the emotion they will take onto the pitch with them, they have a plan, one that they have been working on for months.

“Everybody Welsh is looking at England, what a game, what an occasion, and that’s all great,” Coleman said. “But it’s my job as a manager to make sure that our boys are ready, but they’re controlled for that 90 minutes. It’s all about getting another result, another performance. What we don’t need is getting sucked into anything untoward, that we shouldn’t get sucked into, making all the wrong headlines and not getting what we want.”

England began their campaign with a late draw against Russia (Reuters)

Clearly Coleman is aware of the possibility that emotions on the pitch will spill over into ill-discipline. There are likely to be some frank exchanges of opinion across the technical areas too at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, even though Coleman is a great admirer of Roy Hodgson and very close to his assistant Ray Lewington.

“If I see Roy or Ray, it will be the same,” Coleman said. “We know what’s involved. We’ve both got to get results. We’re at a tournament. They know more about tournament football than we do. This is new territory for us. But there is huge pressure on them, after not winning the first one.”

But for all the rousing battle-talk, Coleman talks with remarkable warmth about the man who briefly managed him at Crystal Palace, before working for Coleman when he was later in charge at Fulham. “I love Lew to pieces, he’s a great guy Lew, a top fella,” Coleman said. “I’ve known him for 25 years.

He was manager of Palace after Steve Coppell and Alan Smith. He was excellent, really good, top guy. I took him to Fulham when I was manager there, he’s a very good coach, really good football man, good football man, great fella.”

Coleman played for Blackburn Rovers when Hodgson arrived from Internazionale to manage them, and while it signaled the end of Coleman’s time at Ewood Park, he has genuine respect for his opposite number today.

Roy Hodgson managed Coleman at Blackburn Rovers in the 1990s (Getty)

“Roy is one of the most methodical coaches I have ever seen,” Coleman said. “I remember then thinking that this fella was a bit different, he was very 100 per cent, an excellent coach. But when I was at Blackburn it never happened for me. I couldn’t do what he needed me to do. I had ruptured my Achilles and I’d been out for 18 months, and I needed to play regularly and I couldn’t get into the Blackburn team. They had Colin Hendry and Stephane Henchoz, two good players, and I couldn’t get in. So I asked to leave, and they sold me to Fulham.”

Hodgson’s time at Blackburn did not work out, but for Coleman that changes nothing. “The proof is in the pudding,” he said. “Look where he’s worked. When you’re a manager it doesn’t always work at every club you go to.”

But tonight, almost 20 years on, Coleman will see his old boss Hodgson and his old mate Lewington in the opposite dug-out. And all of those fond memories will be expelled into the atmosphere as he tries to give ‘big brother’ a bloody nose.