Roy Hodgson has defended the commitment and desire of his England players and insisted doubters should witness the determination of his dressing-room following claims by Gareth Bale that the Wales squad has ‘more passion and pride.’

England face the Welsh in Lens on Thursday needing to secure a positive result against Chris Coleman’s team after emerging from Saturday’s Group B opener in Marseille with a 1-1 draw against Russia.

Vasili Berezutski’s equaliser, two minutes into stoppage time, denied England their first opening game victory at the European Championships – a winless run now stretching to nine games – after dominating for lengthy periods of the fixture at Stade Velodrome.

With Wales beginning their Euro 2016 campaign with a 2-1 victory against Slovakia, England go into Thursday’s encounter needing to beat their neighbours to retain a realistic hope of topping the group.

But with Bale re-igniting Anglo-Welsh rivalry with his incendiary comments – the Real Madrid winger also claimed ‘England big themselves up before they’ve done anything’ – Hodgson insists that he has no concerns over his players’ hunger, with Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane also rejecting Bale’s accusations.

"The other day it was (Russia goalkeeper) Igor Akinfeev saying we were the worst-seeded team in there and now it’s Gareth Bale," Hodgson said "They can have those opinions.

"But I don’t have any doubts personally about our patriotism and our desire and that’s the most important thing. If he (Bale) believes that’s the case, then he’s welcome to that opinion.

"The fact is that receiving disrespectful comments is part and parcel of being a footballer and a football coach.

"I’m pretty sure there will be lots of players going forward in opposing teams who have opinions about us but we know who we are; we know what we are. We don’t have any doubts about ourselves in that respect and that’s the most important thing.