Wales manager Chris Coleman has challenged his side to live up to their tag of being the country's 'golden generation'.

Wales have not qualified for a World Cup since the days of the legendary John Charles in 1958, where they were eliminated by Pele's Brazil in the quarter-finals.

However, Coleman believes that the current crop of players, containing the likes of Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Joe Allen, could succeed where generations containing the likes of Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy and Gary Speed failed.

"It could be [a golden generation], but football is full of ifs, buts, coulds and maybes and they don't count for anything unless we go and achieve," Coleman said.

"England had a golden crop going into the Germany World Cup (in 2006) and it never happened. They never produced so we can talk all we like, but only if we qualify can we then say that this is the golden crop."

Wales open their World Cup qualifying campaign against Belgium on September 7 before facing Serbia three days later.