Aaron Ramsey believes Wales can spring surprises at Euro 2016

Wales’ 58 years of waiting finally comes to an end tomorrow when they play their first game of the tournament against Slovakia.

And the Arsenal midfielder says his club boss thinks they can ruffle a few feathers in France.

“He said we could be pretty dangerous so hopefully that proves to be right,” said Ramsey. “He’s a wise man.”

The 25-year-old midfielder usually finds himself watching major tournaments while on his summer holidays, while many of his Gunners’ team-mates play for their countries on the highest stage.

But this time he has been able to join in with the dressing room excitement in the build-up to the finals in France as 58 years of waiting comes to an end against Slovakia tomorrow.

“Normally I’m on holiday now,” he said.

“When the campaign started and we got those couple of wins early on I kept winding the Arsenal boys up saying ‘I’ll see you in France’. The way things were developing it was looking promising.

“To finally achieve it was great. To go in knowing I would actually be playing in the finals, I can share that experience now with some of the players who’ve done it.

“They were pleased for me – and the manager was as well.

Facing Slovakia will not just be an emotional occasion for Welsh football fans, it will be particularly poignant for the players as well.

Many of this squad worked under Gary Speed before the former Wales’ manager’s took his own life in 2011.

Ramsey was particularly affected by Speed’s death at the age of 42, having been named captain by the former midfielder.

And he is quick to recognise the role Chris Coleman’s predecessor played in their ultimate success.

“It’s been a long journey to get to this point. We’ve come through a lot together and Gary put a lot of this in place,” said Ramsey.

“He got us all believing we could achieve something special. Then obviously what happened, happened and I think after that, naturally, the whole squad was hit. We were a bit lost.

“I think Chris has done an unbelievable job after that. It’s not an easy thing to have come in in those circumstances.

“The first couple of games were hard, players looked lost, not knowing what to do and it affected us.

“But we and he has done really well to get this group back on track, back believing we could do something, and we’ve done it, but we still want more.”