THE Wales squad will be welcomed home as heroes at the Cardiff City Stadium this afternoon and manager Chris Coleman wants the Bluebirds’ ground to remain as the home of Welsh football.

Coleman has dismissed the suggestion that his team could return to the larger Principality Stadium following their successful run to the semi-finals of Euro 2016.

With qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup starting in September the Wales boss wants to harness the impressive atmosphere at the Cardiff City Stadium once again.

“Cardiff City Stadium is our home,” said Coleman. “It’s where we get 30,000 sell-outs, where the atmosphere is electric, where we spent our last campaign.

“The feeling generated by our supporters had a huge impact on the team so we shouldn’t forget that.

“We could gamble and go back to the Millennium Stadium. It is a magnificent stadium, we know that, we could get another 20,000 maybe, but we made a choice.

“Cardiff City Stadium is our home for the next campaign. I would imagine we’re going to stick to that and we should stick to it.

“I’d rather be playing at Cardiff City Stadium where there’s 30,000 screaming Taffs breathing down the opposition’s neck, and our boys feeding off that.

“Playing in front of 50,000 at the Millennium Stadium is a fantastic atmosphere, but that’s a different type of atmosphere.

“We should remember what’s served us well and not mess about with the ingredients of the whole structure of the last campaign.”

On the squad’s final day at their Brittany training base, Coleman was presented with a medal of honour by the mayor of Dinard.

And he revealed how the players and staff let their hair down following Wednesday’s semi-final defeat to Portugal by watching last night’s other semi as hosts France beat world champions Germany.

“As a staff, we watched the game and had some pizza and a few cold beers, which were welcome,” he said.

“It was nice, a lovely atmosphere fair play. The local people in Dinard have given us such a welcome.

“They were playing our national anthem at the restaurant where we were. We sang that and then we sang the French national anthem.

“That whole feeling, I hope that’s being projected back home, what the atmosphere has been like.

“I know there were one or two unsavoury moments at the start of the tournament but, predominantly, all we’ve seen is positivity from people from all different countries.”

South Wales Argus: