The dream may have come to an end on Wednesday night but Gareth Bale predicted a bright future for the Welsh national team.

Optimists gave Wales a slim chance of exiting their Euro 2016 group consisting of England, Russia and Slovakia but no-one would gave guessed that Chris Coleman would lead his side to the semi-finals.

It was there that Wales were eliminated, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani grabbing a goal each to send Portugal to the final.

But Bale hailed the extraordinary journey Wales have embarked on, from being 117th in the world less than five years ago to reaching the last four of the European Championship — knocking out the number two ranked country in the world, Belgium, in the quarters.

Eyes are now focused on the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the Real Madrid star insists that the determination is there in the camp to qualify.

“To be so close to the final and miss out is disappointing but we have to be proud of what we’ve achieved,” Bale said.
“It hurts now because it’s fresh but we’ve been on an amazing journey.

“The whole nation has enjoyed the journey as much as us and it’s been amazing, incredible.

“Fans, staff, everyone. It’s been one of those moments in your life we’ll never forget and very special to all of us.”

Thousands of fans are expected to welcome home Chris Coleman’s squad to Cardiff today.

The whole country has been caught up by the team’s performances in France — the first time that a Wales side have reached the semi-final of a major competition.

But Bale says that the focus is already switching to the World Cup qualifying campaign, which starts with a home game against Moldova in September.

“Our hunger is there more than ever to get back (to major tournaments),” the 26-year-old said.

“It hurts now but we’ve enjoyed it and we feel there’s still a lot more to come.

“There’s more improvements from us and come the World Cup qualifiers — which are not too far away — we’ll get back to working hard and doing what we do best.”

Coleman expressed his pride at the performance of his players after Wales’s elimination was confirmed by two Portugal goals in three minutes at the start of the second half.

“We can be a better side from it,” Bale said.

“We’ve grown in confidence, we’ve grown in stature and I think we’ll be more respected.

“We said all along we didn’t just want to qualify for this tournament, we want to qualify every time.

“We always wanted to test ourselves against the best and I think we’ve done everybody proud — including ourselves.”