A rising power in European football meets a fading force on Friday as Wales begin their Euro 2016 preparations against a Netherlands team still reeling from their failure to qualify.

While Wales are looking forward to their first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup, the Netherlands will spend next summer kicking their heels after missing out on a place in France just 15 months on from a stunning third-place finish at last year's World Cup in Brazil.

When the teams last met, Holland winning 2-0 in Amsterdam in June 2014, it was the Dutch who were using the match to tune up for a major tournament, but although the boot is now on the other foot, Wales manager Chris Coleman says the match will still provide a useful barometer of his team's progress.

"We're up against good opposition and the fact they've not qualified for Euro 2016 means nothing," he said.

"They're almost rebuilding, but we're up against a wounded animal and a dangerous one. We know it's going to be tough, but we want to perform like we have for a considerable amount of time and try to get a result."

Wales have lost just one of the 10 games they have played since that encounter in Amsterdam, and that one defeat, away to Bosnia-Herzegovina last month, fell on the night that their qualification was confirmed.

June's 1-0 win over Belgium demonstrated their ability to compete with the sport's heavyweights and Coleman's side finished their qualifying campaign having conceded only four goals.

But they will take on the Dutch in the Cardiff City Stadium friendly bereft of their two star players, as Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale and Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who between them scored nine of their 11 goals in qualifying, have both been ruled out by injury.

With Reading forward Hal Robson-Kanu and Burnley striker Sam Vokes also sidelined, Leicester City striker Tom Lawrence, currently on loan at Blackburn Rovers, is expected to make his full debut.

Coleman's opposite number Danny Blind marked a break from the past when he named his squad by dropping 32-year-old Fenerbahce striker Robin van Persie, whose own goal against the Czech Republic condemned the Netherlands to a miserable 3-2 defeat in their final qualifying match.

Blind also omitted Memphis Depay from his provisional squad in light of the winger's slow start to life at Manchester United following his transfer from PSV Eindhoven, only to perform a U-turn and bring the 21-year-old back into the fold.

Blind, whose side also face Germany in Hannover on Tuesday, had accused Depay of playing selfishly, but the winger said matters had been resolved during a "positive chat" between the pair.

Having failed to qualify for the European Championship for the first time since 1984, Holland face 10 months without a competitive fixture before qualifying for the 2018 World Cup begins next September.

But for captain Arjen Robben, the meeting with Wales brings with it an opportunity for renewal.

"It is painful, but it is down to us. The only thing we can do is try and restart and rebuild," the Bayern Munich winger told Holland's pre-match press conference.

"It is not nice to say, but we have to start again and prepare for September 2016 and the World Cup qualifiers.

"It is a long way off, but we have to cope with that reality and get some good results out of the upcoming games.

"These are the games we have to try and use to turn it around."