Wales vs Portugal Euro 2016 preview: Gareth Bale seeking to replicate Denmark and Greece 'fairytales'

The Wales talisman Gareth Bale insisted on Monday that his nation was capable of repeating “the fairytale” of Denmark and Greece’s wins in 1992 and 2004 by winning the European Championship.

Bale disclosed 48 hours out from his nation’s semi-final against Portugal that he had booked his holiday for next Monday - the day after the tournament’s final - in the full belief that the side “could do something.” Wales - who will play in their change grey strip on Wednesday - could improve on their hugely acclaimed victory over Belgium in the quarter-finals, he also said.

“I fully believed that we could do something. That is why I booked my holiday for the 11th,” Bale said. "I am not like the others. I fully believed that we could do something and you see the fairytale of Greece and Denmark and stuff and you think why can’t we do it?”

Bale trained alone on Monday, prompting initial concerns that he may be carrying an injury into Wednesday night’s game. But he insisted he was only attempting to give himself extra recovery time. The 26-year-old also insisted that the side could improve on the performance against Belgium in Lille.

“We certainly hope so,” he said. “We have been having meetings to talk about the areas we can improve on. We know we played a good game against an incredible team in Belgium, but we still want to keep progressing, we still want to keep improving. If we can improve those little one percenters all the way through the team and the performance it will only help our game. You can never be totally satisfied, you can always improve in football, whatever level you are at, that is what we will keep trying to do.”

Clamour to watch the game in Wales has reached unprecedented levels, with Cardiff City’s stadium ready to welcome 20,000 people to watch the game on a big screen. The city centre Coopers Field venue, used to screen the Belgium quarter-final, simply cannot accommodate the expected volume of fans.

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Bale steadfastly refused to allow the discussion of the game to revolve around the personal contest between himself and Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo.

“It’s not about two players," he insisted. "Everybody knows that really. It is about two nations in a semi-final, 11 men against 11 men. It’s going to be a very difficult game, we know that. They are in the semi-final for a reason – they have played well enough. We are going to try and enjoy the occasion like we always have and we’ll carry on in the same way.”

But Bale’s sixth press conference appearance at the Welsh team’s base came on a day when Ronaldo, the Portuguese’s captain, again did not arrive to talk. Asked why he had been speaking more often than Ronaldo, Bale said: “I’m not too sure. I can’t comment on how he’s feeling, what he’s doing. I am sure he has his reasons for doing what he did, that’s entirely up to him."

Bale revealed that his side’s 2-1 defeat to England in the group stage had helped motivate the side and aided their progression in the tournament. “The England game was a disappointing one,” Bale admitted. “We didn’t play our own game and we got sucked in a bit but the pitch did not help us. We really learned a lot and since then we have really progressed and got a lot more confident again and it has just kept growing. We have kept believing the more and more we got the results.”