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No Welsh regrets over celebrating England exit

Dinard - Wales insist they have no regrets about the leaked video which showed them celebrating on Monday night as England were knocked out of Euro 2016.

The footage, filmed inside the team hotel as the squad and staff watched England's defeat to Iceland, shows the Wales camp jumping up and down just after the final whistle in Nice.

The clip has prompted criticism in some quarters, and comes less than a fortnight after the sides met in Group B, a game which England won 2-1.

But defenders Chris Gunter and Neil Taylor both claim the scenes were not joy at England going out to leave Wales as the last British nation in the tournament, but delight at seeing a fellow underdog reach the last eight.

When asked if the Wales camp were embarrassed or regretted their actions, Reading full-back Gunter said: "No, I think it may be easy to see it as being slightly over the top, but it certainly wasn't meant to be that way.

"If you asked the squad as a whole from a selfish point of view we are ever so proud to be the last home nation team in the tournament.

"We've come such a long way and football has a funny way of bringing out emotions as you've seen when we played them a couple of weeks ago.

"No-one's talked about Iceland, another team who were written off before a ball was kicked and now they've reached the quarter-finals. It is fantastic for the tournament that Iceland are still in there."

Swansea City defender Taylor added: "As a squad we follow the underdogs in this tournament from Albania to Hungary, they have been a breath of fresh air.

"I know Gylfi Sigurdsson well, he has explained to me about Iceland, what they are all about. We saw that when they qualified and in this tournament they have been unbelievable.

"That was half of the celebrations because of how well Iceland have done, I understand how it has come across. As a group of players we've supported Iceland all along."

While maybe not quite as improbable as Iceland's progress, Wales have themselves overcome the odds to reach the quarter-finals and set up a clash with Belgium in Lille on Friday.

It has given some players a headache though -- Gunter's parents are set to miss his brother's wedding, while Taylor had tickets for Beyonce and Lionel Richie concerts.

"It's not as bad as Chris, but I had Beyonce tickets this week and Lionel Richie was in Swansea a few weeks ago," said Taylor.

"I got them for my wife for her birthday and I didn't even see the date (of the concert) at the time. I thought I had her birthday covered.

"Obviously we're delighted to be here and we don't care. We're in the quarter-finals.

"Wales is at a little bit of a standstill waiting for the game to come around."

Gunter's brother Marc has flown out to the Mexican resort of Cancun ahead of his wedding to fiancee Danielle, but his parents' chances of making the event are receding with every passing day.

"Marc is currently flying to Mexico so he'll miss the game on Friday," said Gunter.

"My parents have said, if we win and go through to the semi-final, they'll miss the wedding as well, which my brother's fine with.

"I think my mother's a little bit upset but, if Wales are in the semi-final, I don't think you'll be able to keep them away."

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