Mark Hughes: Fearless Wales can edge emotional clash with Denmark

Wales have been excellent at Euro 2020 so far. They had a really difficult final group fixture against Italy and, although Wales lost 1-0, the experience will prove to be invaluable for them, especially the young players, not only in this tournament but in future too. It was really pleasing to watch how they performed. We believe we could finish second in the group but it took a lot of effort and character. We look in good shape at the moment.

Wales must be fearless

Tomorrow we play Denmark and they are an accomplished side. They're one of the teams people thought would have a good tournament, irrespective of the issues they've had which was really traumatic for them as a group and as a nation. Thankfully, Christian Eriksen seems to be well on the road to recovery. Everybody's grateful for that.

Given that, Denmark are on a bit of an emotional wave and we'll have to combat that as well. It's a fixture we shouldn't be afraid of. It's similar in terms of the crowd to Turkey - we're going to have hardly any fans whereas our opponents have 30,000 Danish fans making the trip to Amsterdam. So in similar circumstances, let's hope it's a similar result.

There's a huge amount of Wales fans who would love to be there and create the red wall. Clearly it's not going to happen. Is it unfair? I think you just have to accept that countries will have different rules and restrictions regarding international travel at the moment. The Netherlands are well within their rights to apply their own rules. You have to accept it and remember that everybody back home is routing for the Welsh players, so they'll be able to take that onto the pitch with them.

The experience of the Turkey game will help. Wales coped really well that day in a stadium where their own fans were outnumbered considerably. It shouldn't faze us on Saturday. Confidence will be high. As a consequence of the crowd, I think it will help to raise our performance.

Even though we lost to Italy the momentum will still be there. We did really well, especially after going down to 10 men. We should be looking forward to it.

I loved making my mark in big games

I was always of the view that the bigger the game, the more you should enjoy it. I know some players didn't feel that. I never had nerves going into cup finals, it was always just excitement and I couldn't wait to get out. I sense the vast majority of this Welsh side is similar in that regard. I don't think there should be any fear or apprehension - it's a wonderful moment in their careers, a last 16 match in a major finals.

These are the games you want to be remembered for and you want to remember the experience positively when you look back on your career. Just go out and enjoy it, because this is what marks your career as significant. It's about making your mark in key games.

I scored important goals for club and country and they do give you extreme joy. In 1994, I was playing for Manchester United, we were chasing the double but we were 1-0 down to Oldham in the dying seconds of the FA Cup semi-final. Then Brian McClair flicked the ball over the backline and I just anticipated it. My favourite skill was always volleying the ball and it dropped nicely. I knew I'd get good contact on it. It's something I practiced every day for those moments so that when the chance came I could use my instinct to bury it.

Wales have coped well with travel

I don't think it'll have an impact on this game, there's a decent break. Leading into it they will have had five or six days off. I noticed they stayed in Italy after the game and I think that's the right decision. If you've got the time to do recovery strategies in the same country, have a good night's sleep and travel later that's the best scenario.

There's a good spirit in the Wales camp, they players are well-integrated and they base a lot of their team building on togetherness. I don't sense there's anybody divisive in there. They're a strong group who have been close for a long time. I think they're in a good place, winning games and progressing makes everybody happy.

Page has made the right calls

Page has been quite loyal. He changes things up in the game and shows that his tactics are astute. I think he's got a lot of trust in the players and they haven't let him down. It was a little bit different against Italy - they went without Kieffer Moore and I think that was a good decision. They kept him available but didn't want him missing the next game.

I expect Moore to come back, although that's one area that we'll start debating again. But the assumption is Page was protecting Moore, by leaving him out for the Italy match, so you'd expect him to come back in. At the moment you have to say Page has got all the key decisions correct. The formation and substitutions late in games, he's done really well.

It's important to have a plan. Key decisions need to be made early enough in games. If you're going to change things you have to do it before the roof caves in. A lot of managers try to make changes when it's too late. If you're good enough you can preempt that and see the game changing, and then make changes early.

Sometimes you'll get criticised when you make a substitution and people can't see your thinking. You might take a player out of the game who seems to be doing okay but you need to make changes at the right time. That's what Pagey has done.

Wales will be prepared for penalties

You have to be prepared for penalties so you have to practice. But you can never replicate the walk to the spot and the pressure of the real thing. It's about repetition of the technique and knowing you're going to hit the ball cleanly time and time again. You can perfect your technique so you're confident in dispatching the ball.

You can't place too much emphasis on penalties in the build-up, so just have to remember that it's a possibility and be ready. On the day, players have put their hands up to take a penalty but then you see the back of their head and they clearly don't want to take one. It's a difficult one to plan for. You've got to have some kind of framework but on the day it depends who wants to do it.

Wales have got Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey so they'd go with them in a shootout, and look at who's played well in the game. I don't know who are the most proficient at dispatching penalties but the coaching staff have all that information. There'll be a rough idea in terms of who they would expect to step up and take responsibility. Let's hope it doesn't get to that point.

Ward has proved he can be number one

Danny Ward has been excellent for Wales and, once Euro 2020 is over, it's difficult to say if he should look to move from Leicester this summer. He's not getting games because he's got a good keeper ahead of him - Kasper Schmeichel, who'll be in goal for Denmark on Saturday.

It may be that clubs are now more aware of Ward's talent. He will get opportunities to be a first team goalkeeper, but that's the difficulty of the position - there can only be one number one. It takes a long time for a manager to have his confidence in the number one undermined. They usually have enough time to turn their form around. It's difficult if they're the number two or three. You accept it up to a point but when you play international football and get the juices flowing again, you think: "This is what I'm missing."

Ward may think he needs to see what opportunities are out there for him. If he's like any other keeper I've known he'll want to pursue first team football.

Wales to win and set up possible semi-final with England

I fully expect a lot of incident and a lot of emotion on Saturday. I think there'll be a one-goal swing, to Wales hopefully. I think it'll be 2-1 to Wales.

It would be great if we then won a quarter-final and reached another semi-final, especially as there's a chance we would play England.

I'm not sure England will get there. I always want the home nations to do well and, putting aside my Welsh cap, I want England there as well. It reflects well on the Premier league and the football pyramid in this country. You want all the home nations to have a good run. For them to be two of the four semi-final places would be an outstanding tournament for this nation.

I would take England in the semi-finals without a shadow of a doubt. Let's hope it happens, it would be a wonderful occasion. Let's not look too far ahead, though, as there's a long way to go yet.

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Listen to the latest episode of the Euro 2020 daily podcast as Kevin Hatchard, Mark O'Haire and Jake Osgathorpe preview Saturday's round of 16 ties and discuss the outright betting value: