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Bale relishing hostile Baku

Jack Rosser

GARETH BALE and his Wales side will have to silence raucous Turkish support in Baku this afternoon.

A crowd of 30,000 is expected in the Azerbaijani city for the match, which kicks off at 5pm, with nearly all of those present expected to back Turkey.

The two countries are closely aligned, both geographically and politically, with Turkey’s captain Burak Yilmaz describing the supporters in the host city as “friends and brothers”.

Robert Page’s players will face a hostile atmosphere come kick-off, but captain Bale says they are relishing the reception after more then a year behind closed doors. “When you come into an away stadium, you know you’re going to get abuse,” he said. “But all us footballers have dealt with it in the past — it’s normal. You feed off the atmosphere.

“Of course they’re not saying great things, but you want to silence them. It gives you extra motivation, if we needed any more. It’s the atmosphere we enjoy the most.”

Wales can take a significant step towards qualification from their group with a result against Turkey. Their opponents were well beaten by Italy in the tournament’s opening game last week and sit bottom of the group.

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2021-06-16T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-16T07:00:00.0000000Z

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