Wales captain Ashley Williams feels the late Gary Speed would be proud of the team’s achievement in reaching the semi-final of Euro 2016.
Speed put in motion the changes leading to the greatest moment in Welsh football history before his untimely death in November 2011 at the age of 42.
And Williams says he considered Speed’s legacy ahead of Wednesday’s semi-final against Portugal when reading ‘Together Stronger’, the book written by Welsh journalist Chris Wathan which charts the recent history of the Wales football team.
“I was thinking about him (Speed) on the plane coming over,” said Williams.
“Reading Chris Wathan’s book brought it back to me at the time.
“My thought coming in was I hope he’d be proud of us. He saw us grow up.
“He’s always in the back of our minds. When we achieve something, we think about him.”
Wales must cope in Lyon without suspended pair Aaron Ramsey, one of the players of the tournament with a goal and four assists, and defender Ben Davies.
But Williams feels Wales are well covered in those areas, whoever manager Chris Coleman calls up.
“The strength is in the squad, not just the team,” said Williams.
“The 23 men who are there. Whoever the gaffer picks will do the job.
“We’re disappointed for them, but it gives two others a chance to experience the Euros.
“They’ll fill the slots as good as the boys who went out.”
Cristiano Ronaldo presents the greatest threat to Wales meeting either Germany or France in the Paris final on Sunday.
But Williams said of the Real Madrid star: “He’s one of the greatest players in the world, but they have other weapons in their team.
“We are not obsessing over that.
“We’ll try and nullify them as a team, as we have all tournament.”
Chris Coleman believes Wales’ Euro 2016 adventure is only the start of the journey, and not the end.
Wales’ remarkable run to the last four of the Euros has been widely applauded but manager Coleman has predicted an even brighter future for Gareth Bale and company with Wales starting their World Cup qualifying campaign in September.
There is also the prospect of Wales competing in next summer’s Confederations Cup in Russia, their participation in which would be confirmed by them overcoming Portugal and world champions Germany beating France in the other semi-final.
“People think the end of this tournament is the end of this journey, but it’s not,” said Coleman.
“It’s part of the journey. The experience this group of boys will get from this. They’ll be here long after I am. This success is part of the learning process.
“We’re here to compete and learn, and let’s see if our best is enough to compete against the best.”
Bale and his Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the build-up to the semi-final showdown in Lyon.
Given Real’s Champions League triumph, some observers are seeing this game as a straight shoot-out to decide this year’s Ballon D’Or award.
No-one can dispute Ronaldo’s phenomenal goal-scoring ability – as well as nearly 500 goals at club level he has scored a record 60 times for Portugal in 131 appearances – but Bale is recognised as the greater team player.
“You can’t manufacture or pretend….you’re either a team player or you’re not,” said Coleman.
“You’re either comfortable being in a team environment with people putting themselves out there knowing they’re not guaranteed anything even if they do their best, but want to do it for their country, or you’re not.
“Baleo is exactly like that, like all the lads. But it’s not just this tournament.
“We had a whole campaign to get through to get here where they were exactly the same. Where we find ourselves now, it hasn’t happened overnight. The players, the bonds they have together, that togetherness.”
Portugal have managed to make the last four despite failing to win one game in 90 minutes, while Wales have won four of their five matches.
“I felt if we got it right we could get out of the group,” said Coleman.
“After that you never know who you’ll get in the last 16, and then the quarter-final. I told the players that I genuinely believed we’d arrive at that stage.
“I didn’t know what would happen after that, if I’m honest. But we’ve got a good team.”
Pepe remains a doubt for Portugal after head coach Fernando Santos kept his counsel.
Questions over the 33-year-old’s fitness were raised after missing Sunday’s training session with a thigh complaint.
A precautionary measure it may have been but Pepe did not take a full part in training on the eve of the match, instead doing separate work at their Marcoussis base before travelling to Lyon.
Being without the Real Madrid centre-back against Wales would be a huge blow for Portugal and coach Santos was coy when asked about his fitness.
“As for Pepe, you’ll probably be tossing and turning in your beds tonight because I’m not going to answer,” he said with a smile.
“I’ll be sleeping quietly because I have other players who can play. This situation is not new for us, it happened in our first match with (Ricardo) Quaresma.
“Sometimes players recover and are fully fit to play and other times they’re not and others are called up.
“If Pepe is 100 per cent, I will think about it and he can start the game. If not, no problem. All the players must be 100 per cent fit for such an important game.”