Wednesday 15 June 2016 14:18, UK
Aaron Ramsey has received the backing of Wales rugby legends as he prepares for Thursday's 'Battle of Britain' in Lens.
Ramsey was eight when the Wales rugby team memorably beat England at their temporary Wembley home in April 1999, with the Millennium Stadium being built in time for the World Cup that year.
Memories of that game came flooding back for rugby fan Ramsey when he received messages of support before the Euro 2016 Group B showdown between Wales and England at the Stade Felix Bollaert-Delelis.
"I've had a few messages off the rugby players," he said.
"Scott Quinnell sent quite a funny one."
Quinnell, like Ramsey now, had bleached blond hair that day and it was his pass which set Scott Gibbs away for the match-winning try.
"Hopefully we can win like them," Ramsey added. "It's been a long time since we beat them. It's about time we changed that.
"We've ticked off a few things along the way and we've closed the gap, and hopefully we can show that on the big stage.
"We want to match them, then go on and better them."
Whereas England and Wales are regular rugby foes - playing each other three times in nine months - games between the two countries in football are a lot rarer.
The two countries have only played each other four times since the British Home Championship was abolished in 1984, England winning all four games.
Wales' last victory in the fixture came in the final British Home Championship meeting in 1984, with Mark Hughes on target in a 1-0 win at Wrexham - the last time Wales managed to score against England.
Ramsey captained Wales when they lost twice to England in Euro 2012 qualifying, 2-0 in Cardiff and 1-0 at Wembley.
"The first game against England was my first as captain. It was a nice moment, a proud moment," he added.
"We were on the wrong end of the scoreline, but it was quite early on in the changes that Gary Speed was making.
"You could see the way we wanted to go about things. That was the start of something.
"The other one we played well at Wembley and showed the progression we'd made in a short space of time.
"We were quite unlucky not to get something out of that game and there were encouraging signs."
The pressure is on England to win the game after they conceded an injury-time equaliser to draw 1-1 with Russia in Marseille.
But Wales have appeared confident and relaxed at their Brittany training base, knowing victory would secure qualification to the last 16 after their opening 2-1 win over Slovakia in Bordeaux.
"We are the first British team to get off to a winning start (at the European Championship) so I don't know what all the fuss is about!" Ramsey said.
"I believe we can grow into the tournament. Hopefully we can continue improving.
"The Slovakia result puts us in a good position and we will have even more belief now.
"They always seem to do well in the qualifying campaign and then there is a lot of pressure when they get to the finals.
"That is something they experience, but we don't because we did so well in the qualification campaign in getting here.
"There have been some down points but that has helped us grow as a team, and now we are seeing the rewards of what was put in place over the last few years."
