Chris Coleman encouraged by Wales' performance

Chris Coleman insists Wales' performance in the 3-2 defeat to the Netherlands showed his side could compete without Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey.

Arjen Robben hit a second-half double as Wales fought back through goals from Joe Ledley and Emyr Huws before eventually suffering only a second defeat in 11 matches.

Wales were without key duo Bale and Ramsey, but Coleman thought he saw enough to be encouraged during the defeat

"It was a good exercise, they are a good team who have been criticised a lot but they are still have top-quality players," Coleman said.

"We knew it would be tough and we always want to win, but we got a lot of other things out of the game. We were competitive. We used our full number of six subs and were still competitive.

"We scored two goals without Bale and Ramsey, which is a big thing when you look at who was getting the goals for us in the qualification campaign.

"We also didn't have Hal [Robson-Kanu] so we were without our front three from the campaign but I was delighted for Tom Lawrence," he added.

"He is a very good player, he has improved and has done very well for us and George Williams is also back after nearly a year out.

"Ben Davies has not been in the first team at Tottenham, James Chester has not been playing at West Brom but Paul Dummett and Adam Henley have got caps.

"We are building and these lads need minutes if they are to come with us to France."

It was not all positives for Coleman as Wales struggled defensively, especially after captain Ashley Williams was substituted at half-time.

Wales struggled to cope with Bayern Munich forward Robben, who has scored four goals in three games against the Welsh.

"We saw in patches glimpses of frailty which we did not see in the campaign where we were rock solid," Coleman said.

"We were a little bit open and they had Robben who could open up any defence in that form. We have world-beaters who can win a game but we have to do the ugly business.

"We can play good football and create, but we have to defend for our lives or we do not get the result.

"We are not good enough to play 60-70 per cent against these sides. We cannot go on to pitch whenever we want, we have to be right on it to get a result."