Ryan Giggs last night admitted he doesn’t care where Gareth Bale is playing – as long as he’s on a pitch somewhere.
Giggs was delighted to avoid playing Italy in the first game of their Euro 2020 Finals campaign next summer and he was boosted by news that the strike star had played for Real Madrid .
But Giggs knows Welsh hopes rest of whether Bale is fit and firing when they face Switzerland, Turkey and Italy – with their first two games in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“I want to see all my players playing so when they come to camp you don’t have to catch up with fitness or worry about bringing them off after 60-70 minutes that’s all I hope for.
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“Where they play doesn’t matter – preferably at good clubs and Gareth is at one of biggest in world.
“He hasn’t been playing for them much coming to the last few camps but he’s done brilliant for us and because of his ability, fitness and passion he can do it but it’s not ideal.
Giggs was as pleased as he could be with the draw saying: “We wanted to avoid playing Italy in Rome in the first game and we have done.
“Italy will be favourites then the rest of us are pretty competitive and we’ll all probably be fighting for second place.
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“We play them last game in Rome a tough one but hopefully they will have six points and play their reserves so it will be slightly easier for us!
“They’ve come back in a big way winning ten qualifiers but we just have to look after ourselves.
“We have shown recently we are a match for anyone and if we have all our players available we can compete against anyone.”
Despite two games in far-off Baku, Giggs believes it could be a positive.
(Image: REUTERS)
“We’ve got recent good experience of Baku winning there a couple of weeks ago and first two games are there so we don’t have to go Baku to Rome to Baku.
“We have the opportunity to base ourselves there and get used to the heat and facilities.
“And hopefully they will adopt us as their second country having been there a couple of times and support us!”
