Gareth Bale shifted the focus on the two countries competing tomorrow for a place in the Euro 2016 finals, reminding people that there is more to the game than two Real Madrid stars.

Much of the focus has been about Bale coming up against his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo but the Welsh wizard feels that the talk should be about his country’s first appearance in a semi-final.

He said: “It’s not about two players. We know and everybody knows that it’s about two nations in the semi-final — 11 men against 11.

“Of course he’s a fantastic player, everybody knows what he can do.

“But we have always spoken about what we do, what we do ourselves as a team. We don’t worry about the opposition.”

Five years ago, Wales were ranked 117th in the world but are just 180 minutes away from lifting the trophy in France and warned Portugal that he and his teammates are not ready to go home.

“We think it’s our time — we don’t want it to end here,” Bale said ahead of the first major tournament semi-final in Wales’s history.

“We want to continue the journey and keep on fighting.

“We are going to go out and enjoy the occasion.

“We are not going to fear anything; we are not going to freeze.

“Hopefully our best is good enough and we can make more history.”

Bale trained separately yesterday morning, saying he felt “a little bit stiff” after the 3-1 quarter-final victory over Belgium.

He then quickly allayed fears that he would be a doubt tomorrow, stressing that it was just an extra recovery day.

The 26-year-old then stressed the importance of the rest of the team, saying that if Wales stick to their gameplan, they will nullify the threat of Portugal.

“We know a lot of teams we’ve played against have got very good individuals but, for us, it’s about the team.

“The team is the star for us. There’s no stars in our team — we all work as one.

“We all run for each other, tackle for each other, fight for each other — and if the team performs well we are able to shut out a lot of threats.”

Wales take to the field without the suspended pair of Ben Davies and Aaron Ramsey.

However, Bale believes that their absence has provided extra motivation for Wales to play either France or Germany in the Paris final on Sunday.

“We’ve lost Aaron and Ben and it’s horrible for them,” he said.

“You feel for them and I’m sure deep down they’ll be hurt, but they are not showing it.

“They are doing everything to get behind the team.

“It’s given us even more motivation for us to win the semi-final so they can play again.

“We are not doing it just for the nation and the badge now, we are doing it for them as well.”