Euro 2016: Wales far more than just Bale - and far more than just making up the numbers

You can't really escape him. It's inevitable that all attention on Wales will be concentrated on the No.11 with the faintly ludicrous bun atop his head.

And of course all the attention was going to be on him. He cost seven times as much as anyone else in the squad, and about as much as the others combined; his last competitive game was in the Champions League final; and he plays in the most expensively-assembled club side in history.

To an extent the focus on Gareth Bale in the Wales team is justified. When he stepped up for the free-kick early in their first major tournament appearance for a generation, there was almost an inevitability about what would occur next.

Such is Bale's aura it was pretty easy to convince yourself that he persuaded Slovakia goalkeeper Matus Kozacik to take that step to his left using some form of mystical non-verbal communication, like Obi Wan Kenobi telling the stormtroopers that these were not in fact the droids they were looking for.

In that sense it was difficult to blame the goalie really. What chance have you got against Bale's mind tricks?

For Welsh fans, knowing that you have this glorious specimen of athleticism and technical ability must be astonishingly uplifting.

But Saturday's game against Slovakia provided something probably more encouraging and reassuring: that they're not reliant on their superstar.

Wales fans, and really anyone who has watched them on their wonderful journey to the European Championships, have known for some time that they're not a one-man team, that most tedious of accusations against a traditionally smaller nation who achieve anything.

[LOVE FOR BALE: ASDASD]

The stats show that Bale is, undeniably, a fairly handy man to have around: he scored seven of their 11 goals in qualifying; he set up another two; Hal Robson-Kanu's winner on Sunday was Wales's first competitive goal not scored by Bale or Aaron Ramsey since October 2014.

But against Slovakia Bale was not the decisive figure in the stadium. He scored the opener, and provided plenty of threat elsewhere, but Joe Allen was superb, Ashley Williams and Ben Davies in defence likewise, and the 22-year-old Danny Ward, thrown in after Wayne Hennessey suffered a back spasm in the warm-up and with a grand total of two competitive starts under his belt since January, did well after a few early nerves.

And then there's Robson-Kanu, a lower league journeyman technically without a club at present, who has provided much frustration for the Reading fans he's played in front of for the last few years. But he looks a different man in Welsh red to Royals blue: for the latter a workaday utility forward, often shifted out to the wing to 'do a job', for the former a relentless centre-forward who will press and chase and harry and provide endless problems.

For international defenders, he's the football equivalent of a toothache. That's exactly what he did against Slovakia, and it's only a mild exaggeration to say he completely changed the game, not even considering his scuffed goal, perhaps the biggest in Welsh football for 58 years.

Yet none of those men were the most important to the victory. Robson-Kanu was such a key part of the Welsh qualification campaign that it must have been tempting for Chris Coleman to play him from the start, despite not being 100% fit. But Coleman took the calculated gamble of playing Bale up front, a tactic he has previously admitted isn't ideal, in the knowledge that he had Robson-Kanu's dogged running safely in his back pocket.

Coleman judged perfectly when to change things, not long after Slovakia had equalised and when it looked like they might overrun the Welsh, introducing Robson-Kanu to make merry hell up front. Moments after he was introduced he chased a lost cause in the corner, won the ball and crossed for Ramsey, who headed just over: almost a decisive moment, one that came about because of the precisely-timed switch. Momentum shifted, Slovakia returned to the back foot, and moments later the winner arrived. Coleman's record in club management is patchy at best, but for Wales he's doing just fine.

And now to England on Thursday, a footballing nation in a seemingly constant state of ennui that was hardly lifted, despite a largely excellent performance, by Russia's late equaliser. "There's nothing to be afraid of," said Coleman after the game. He certainly believes it, and the way they played and won against Slovakia might persuade a few other people too.

It's not just the plain fact that Wales are at Euro 2016 that has made their fans rather giddy. It's that they're good. Genuinely good, and have a chance to do something in this tournament, something they showed on Saturday. And not just because of Gareth Bale, either.