Tuesday 30 August 2016 08:13, UK
Wales manager Chris Coleman says the excitement of Euro 2016 is a memory now and that his team need to create a fresh wave of excitement.
Wales produced their best-ever display at a major tournament in the summer, reaching the semi-finals before losing to eventual winners Portugal.
But Coleman says that, far from enjoying the moment since returning home, he has missed the excitement and is ready for the challenge of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, which gets underway against Moldova on 5 September.
"When I got home, for the two weeks after it I think my wife was expecting me to be a certain way - and I was not," said Coleman. "I was on a bit of a downer.
"The situation is so exciting. It is exhausting but you have all that emotion.
"But, when it finishes, you don't get weened off it. It is over and you are back into reality as fathers and husbands.
"It was really hard and you miss that buzz. You feel like you need a rest when it is going on, but once it finishes you pine for it.
"It was so special, but it is gone, that moment is finished. We have to create something new."
However, Coleman warns that a qualifying group which also includes Austria, Serbia, Republic of Ireland and Georgia, as well as the Moldovans, is not likely to be straightforward.
"I am not sure people think we will sail through the group, but there may be an expectation of us playing super-attractive football, creating chances and scoring loads of goals," said Coleman.
"If it goes that way it will be great, but I know football and it is rarely like that.
"Teams will not open up against us, they will do to us what we did to a lot of teams in the last campaign and sit back.
"We have to prepare for that challenge and be in the mix after the first five games."
Coleman thinks retaining the approach which served the side so well in the last campaign will be the key to success for Wales.
"We have to stick to our identity," he added.
"When we are on the pitch the players have shown what it means to them to represent Wales.
"If we get a good result against Moldova it has to mean the same as the results in the last campaign.
"Be it Andorra or Belgium, if we got something out of those games it meant the same. That is how it has to be.
"We spoke about being streetwise in the last campaign and we need to show it, especially in these opening games, because it is a new challenge."
