David Platt: France and Spain wouldn’t fear Euro 2016 clash with Wales, why do England?

There seems to be a common perception that the game against Wales will be a very difficult one for England to win.

Granted, the gap between all nations has shrunk in recent years but I doubt France, Germany or Spain would see this as a potential problem.

So if we have any thought of being potential Euro 2016 winners, surely we should not see this match as being an obstacle.

This is not an FA Cup third-round tie in a hostile environment on a dodgy pitch.

We are in a neutral venue on a perfect surface. And England simply have the better team.

So why the nerves?

Is it Wales’ rise to become a serious international opponent or the decline of England’s performance potential?

I suspect a little of both. But should we really be concerned about a squad we know everything about?

Even a quick glance at the two teams has England on top with regards to clubs they play for.

Yet the spectre of Gareth Bale looms immense.

Bale was on Roberto Mancini’s list of targets when we worked together at Manchester City.

Often he would drop off our radar because we felt he drifted in and out of games. Then he would score a spectacular goal that made you sit up and think again.

The fee needed to prise him away from Tottenham brought things into perspective.

Real Madrid paid it and I have to say it’s been value for money.

But in Spain he has players around him that make the game far easier and when teams have Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema to contend with too, there is always going to be more room to play.

He certainly didn’t get that room against Slovakia and should have even less against England.

And no disrespect to his Wales team-mates, but he needs to be producer, director and editor of almost everything.

Yes, Bale scored a good free-kick against Slovakia. And yes, it was a great result . . . but it was not a great performance from him or Wales.

Still, I don’t think ours against Russia was quite what a lot of people made out at the time.

We are certainly going to need to up our game, particularly in the last third. Even during Saturday’s match, I was thinking we never looked like scoring.

Because Wayne Rooney had a good long-range effort and Eric Dier scored a terrific free-kick the deficiencies I noticed up front have been ignored.

But how many real chances did we create?

Now that is not to say Roy Hodgson should drop Harry Kane. There are not many top strikers in this tournament but he is one and you cannot drop someone of his ability after one average game.

If a manager starts making changes like that it will just breed uncertainty among all the players.

But, as I said the other day, I would make the one change to get Rooney further forward, where he will cause Wales more problems.

Push him up, bring Jack Wilshere in, move Dele Alli wide and leave out Raheem Sterling.

If this game does pan out to be a tough one, maybe Bale’s aspersions that Wales have a greater and deeper passion are true.

Or maybe we can use Bale’s ‘taunts’ as extra motivation to show we really should be ranked as favourites alongside the French, Germans and Spanish.