Gareth Bale: 'Northern Ireland deserve respect'

Gareth Bale has insisted that Wales will not underestimate Northern Ireland when the two teams clash in the first knockout stage of Euro 2016 on Saturday afternoon.

Wales won two of their three Group B matches to finish above England and set up a clash with Northern Ireland, who qualified as one of the best third-placed teams.

Chris Coleman's side will enter the last-16 tie as the favourites to progress, but the Real Madrid attacker has said that Northern Ireland must be respected.

"They topped their group in qualifying, you don't do that by mistake. They have similar spirit, work very hard, perhaps they're a bit more defensive than us. They will be difficult to break down but we will give everything we have," Bale told reporters.

Bale has scored in each of his team's three matches at this summer's tournament.