Chris Coleman wants Wales to stay at Cardiff City Stadium
Friday 8 July 2016 10:54, UK
Chris Coleman says Wales should not "mess about" with a winning formula by moving to the Millennium Stadium for World Cup qualifying.
Football's stock is at an all-time high in the rugby-loving principality thanks to the achievement of Coleman's side in reaching the Euro 2016 semi-finals.
Thousands turned out at Cardiff's biggest venue - now named the Principality Stadium - just to watch their defeat to Portugal on a big screen.
But Coleman wants to stick at the 33,000-capacity Cardiff City Stadium, where Wales conceded just one goal in five unbeaten games during qualifying for France.
Speaking at a final press conference in Dinard before boarding the plane for a Cardiff homecoming parade, the manager said: "Cardiff City Stadium is our home,
"We get 30,000 sellouts where the atmosphere is electric. It's where in the last campaign a feeling was generated by our supporters that had a huge impact on the team. We shouldn't forget that
"Okay, we could gamble and go back to the Millennium Stadium - and it's an amazing stadium - and we could maybe get another 20,000 supporters in there. Maybe.
"But we made a choice. Cardiff City Stadium is our home for the next campaign and I'd imagine we're going to stick to that. We should stick to it.
"I'd rather be playing at Cardiff City Stadium where there's 30,000-odd screaming 'taffs' breathing down the opposition's neck and our boys are feeding off that, than the opposition playing at the Millennium Stadium where it's a different type of atmosphere.
"I think we should remember what served us well, not mess about with the ingredients of the whole structure of the last campaign and keep building on it."
And Coleman is also warning his players that any post-France complacency could halt the progress that brought a top-10 ranking and genuine disappointment at failing to reach Sunday's Paris final.
He said: "We've got to be realistic in our thinking and in our demands but we've also got to say 'we've got the possibility to build on this'. We have to build on this and not let it be a one-off and that is going to be hard work, of course.
"And that means all of us, myself included, we have got to make sure we never fall into that little comfort zone of 'it's okay if we don't do it next time because we did it the last time'.
"At the moment we are on dangerous ground because it is about what we do next. We've got to go and qualify for the World Cup.
"It is just making sure we are not resting on any laurels - 'haven't we done really well.' Done being the word, finished, gone, behind us."
Wales open their World Cup qualifying campaign at home to Moldova on September 5.
