Norwich City striker Kyle Lafferty is warning Wales not to take anything for granted as Northern Ireland stand in the way of a quarter-final spot for Chris Coleman's men at Euro 2016.

Lafferty is desperate to return to the starting line up for Saturday's celtic clash in Paris after a second-half cameo in his country's final Euro 2016 group game against Germany. Northern Ireland keeper Michael McGovern defied the world champions in an heroic shift that booked Michael O'Neill's men a place in the knock-out stages against the Welsh.

'We've probably got one of the best defences in the tournament,' said Lafferty. 'We've come up against world-class players and kept them relatively quiet. We've only conceded two goals in three games which isn't bad considering the players we've been up against. No matter who we come up against we'll fancy our chances. It's a one-off game now and I'm sure we'll go into it thinking we can get a victory. We kept going until the 93rd minute against Germany because we knew 1-0 wasn't a bad result and it had a massive say in our goal difference.

'To leave with that result is something we can take a lot of positives from.'

Lafferty was superb for Northern Ireland in qualification, scoring seven goals in nine appearances to guide them to a first-ever European Championship and end a tournament drought stretching 30 year, but the City striker was dropped after the opening 1-0 defeat to Poland.

'When I was given a chance to come on I just wanted to do enough to put a doubt in Michael O'Neill's head,' he said. 'I wanted to show I'm still hungry, I still want to play and I've still got a goal in me. I didn't get a chance but that had a lot to do with the team we were up against.

'Whoever we get in the next stage we'll need to put our strongest XI on the pitch and hopefully I'll be in it.'