ARSENAL midfielder Aaron Ramsey has welcomed the prospect of a pre-European Championship friendly with England, echoing manager Chris Coleman in telling Roy Hodgson’s men, ‘bring it on.’

Wales have leapfrogged their old rivals in the FIFA world rankings, currently ninth to England’s 10th and while England are already confirmed for France next summer, Coleman’s men are on the brink, requiring just one more point.

And with speculation hotting up that the Welsh Football Association are targeting a money-spinning clash with England, Ramsey admitted the players would be keen.

And with England and Wales potentially set to do battle in both of Wales’ national sports in the coming weeks with the rugby World Cup around the corner, Ramsey is looking forward to the rivalry.

“We would welcome an England game, I think so, there will be a bit of banter between me and some of my teammates at Arsenal. It is always a great game, committed game. I have been involved in two before. So yeah why not?

“We are above England in football and rugby at the moment and it’s probably the first time.

“There will be some banter, of course, it’s only natural. If it does happen it will be a great game.”

Ramsey believes Wales can end their near 60-year wait for major tournament football sooner rather than later.

“I watched the Welsh rugby game and I was gutted to see the two players go off, they are great players for Wales.

“It could be a big month for Wales in both sports. I am looking forward to it. I will try to get off and watch a game (in the World Cup). I do like to watch the internationals. Good luck to the boys.

Ramsey admits he was disappointed Wales couldn’t get over the line against Israel, but believes Bosnia away, rather than Andorra at home, is where the qualification can be sealed.

“Obviously we are disappointed not to have qualified yet,” he said.

“We can take positives from the game. We feel we dominated possession, created opportunities and just couldn’t quite finish one off. It was important not to lose, we have kept another clean sheet and the stats would suggest we had another good game.”

Ramsey believes Wales success has been built on their defence, led by inspirational skipper Ashley Williams.

“The defenders have had a great campaign. It makes it a lot easier for us. Even the midfielders and strikers are all putting in a shift defensively as a unit, we are trying our hardest to defend as a team,” he said.

“But credit to the defenders, they throw their bodies on the line and Wayne has made good saves throughout the campaign, they make it easier to play in front of.

“It is summed about by Ashley Williams. Not just him all the defenders who have come in and done well, our wing-backs our goalkeeper, the whole mentality of this group has been terrific.”

Ramsey doesn’t believe the Wales squad will become nervous, despite entering unchartered territory as they look to get over the line.

“This squad has got a lot of experience and a lot of the players play for top clubs around the world and have a lot of caps,” he said.

We haven’t been in this position before but I think our club experience will help us. We have done a remarkable job so far so we won’t feel too down. We are still top of the group with a couple of games to play; we’re looking forward to that.”

And Ramsey doesn’t think Andorra is the game to target.

Absolutely we feel we can get a point in Bosnia,” he said.

“We feel we can go there and grab all three points. That’s the confidence in this team at the moment. Hopefully we will be able to do that and have a successful end to what has been a great campaign.

“The fans have been unbelievable home and away. They travel in their numbers and sometimes it is a bit easier playing away from home because teams are trying to attack and score, which is a bit more of an open game.

“We saw against Israel it can be quite difficult when a team has 10, 11 players behind the ball. We will be full of confidence going there.

“We will have to get used to teams playing defensively against us. We will just have to be more clinical in front of goal really. We created a few opportunities but we didn’t put the ball in the back of the net which is disappointing for all the good play that we did.”