Wales’ Gareth Bale celebrates after they qualified for Euro 2016.

Soccer history is riddled with world class players who missed out on major tournaments because their national teams were not strong enough—not so Gareth Bale.
Bale has led Wales into their first major finals in 57 years, the 2016 European championship in France.
The Welsh, who played at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, clinched second place in Group H with a match to spare despite going down to their first defeat, 2-0 in Bosnia, after Israel lost 2-1 at home to Cyprus on Saturday.
“This is right up there in my career. It was a dream from when I was a small child to play in a major tournament. It doesn’t stop here, we have business to do in France,” Bale said after the match in Zenica.
Real Madrid winger Bale, who scored six goals in the qualifiers, will enjoy the international stage denied to compatriots like Ryan Giggs, Mark Hughes, Ian Rush and the late Gary Speed.

Nearly men no more
Wales are usually the nearly men in qualifying campaigns.
They were denied a place at the 1978 World Cup when Scotland were controversially awarded a penalty, even though the ball struck striker Joe Jordan’s hand and not defender Dave Jones.
Paul Bodin’s penalty miss against Romania saw Welsh dreams of reaching the 1994 World Cup in the United States dashed.
Then Hughes’s Wales side fell at the final hurdle in 2003 in a two-legged playoff to reach the Euros, cruelly beaten at home by Vadim Evseev’s strike after holding Russia in Moscow.
 On Saturday Wales lost the battle against Bosnia but won the qualifying war by securing a historic place at the finals.
“It’s a dream come true,” manager Chris Coleman said.
“All the players from my generation, and generations before, nearly got there and it was really tough. But this group have gone that extra yard.
“They deserve everything they have got. From the first game to tonight they have given me their all,” he told Sky Sports.
Coleman took over the team from former midfielder Speed, who was found dead four years ago.
“Gary Speed was such a great man and a great presence that I wanted to carry on his work. But I couldn’t. So I decided to do my own thing and it has been a fantastic campaign,” Coleman added.
Wales finish at home to the group’s bottom team Andorra at the Cardiff City Stadium where there will be a party atmosphere.
“We always had belief from the start but we knew it would be a lot of hard work,” said captain Ashley Williams.
“We didn’t manage to do it in front of our home fans but when we go home now we’ll hopefully win that game and have a nice night after it,” the Swansea City defender said.