Wales warm up for Belgium battle with victory over Liechtenstein

Times

14 hours ago

There was no surprise that Wales brushed aside Liechtenstein — the more eye-catching news arrived later, when they learnt that Belgium had dropped points by drawing in North Macedonia.
Wales and Belgium are expected to be rivals to top the 2026 World Cup qualifying group J, making their meeting in Brussels on Monday a potentially significant one. Wales have seven points from three matches while Belgium were opening their campaign. Even if Belgium are past their peak, they are ranked eighth in the world and will certainly pose a greater attacking threat for Wales than Liechtenstein, who failed to manage one attempt on goal, even off target, at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Wales needed to maintain their patience and move the ball quickly against part-timers who set out to frustrate before tiring and conceding twice after the break. Wales probably should have scored more than three goals, having had 79 per cent of the ball against a country ranked 205th of the 211 Fifa members and without a win in their previous 43 World Cup qualifying games.
Joe Rodon broke a frustrating deadlock six minutes before the break with a powerful header from Sorba Thomas's inswinging corner. Harry Wilson arrived late to head home a second on his return from a foot injury before Kieffer Moore tapped a third into an empty net after David Brooks's volley was parried by Benjamin Büchell, the former Oxford United goalkeeper. He made good saves to keep the score respectable, notably tipping over the bar from Ethan Ampadu's overhead kick, which deflected and looped up, and using his legs to save from Brooks.
The Wales head coach, Craig Bellamy, will be pleased that his substitutions played a part in the second and third goals but frustrated that he lost Neco Williams, the full back, who was taken off on a stretcher after attempting to wrap his foot around the ball to cross. He will have a scan on a suspected ankle injury on Saturday.
Bellamy is looking forward to returning to Belgium, where he spent two years working at Anderlecht, initially as under-21 coach and then as assistant to Vincent Kompany. 'We could have made it a lot more [goals], and we'd like to make it a lot more,' Bellamy said. 'There were good chances created, I liked how we controlled it. When the ball was in play we were really sharp, as soon as they had the ball our reactions were brilliant. They couldn't build anything to get anywhere near our goal.
'Now we go there [Belgium] and I'm not sitting back, it's not in my make-up.'
While Bellamy is unbeaten in nine matches since being appointed last summer, his side initially found it tough going to break down a low block and the match followed the same pattern as in the games against Kazakhstan and North Macedonia in the previous qualifiers in March. There were half-chances spurned in the first half before they finished with 26 attempts, 11 of which were on target.
Bellamy and his Wales players became increasingly irritated with Liechtenstein's disruptive tactics and Anastasios Papapetrou, the referee, giving free kicks. Liechtenstein played five at the back and dropped four in front, making it a test of Wales' creativity and finishing.
Thomas played in an advanced role on the left, not always making the best use of plenty of space and chance to cross. He was perhaps also fortunate not to be punished for a challenge on Simon Luchinger, which was reviewed by VAR, before he swung in a pacey corner for Rodon to score and draw sighs of relief from his team-mates.
Wilson, who joined Ampadu in returning from injury, used a short free kick to drive into space and sliced wide from outside the penalty area. Moore, who was among five changes from the 1-1 draw in North Macedonia in March, picked the wrong option as he chested down an excellent cross from Williams when he might have either headed at goal or laid across to Wilson in space. Moore and Liam Cullen got into each other's way on a cross before Wilson skied the loose ball.
After the interval, Moore was a shade slow to react to a fantastic low cross by Brennan Johnson and then headed wide with a chance that should have been routine for a target man like him. The substitutes Lewis Koumas and Jay Dasilva combined for Wilson to double the lead. Brooks, who also came off the bench, volleyed Cullen's cross before Moore converted the rebound. Brooks sprinted clear and poked into the side netting and Moore could not reach a late chipped cross.
Wales (4-2-3-1): K Darlow — C Roberts, J Rodon, B Davies, N Williams 6 (J Dasilva 24) — E Ampadu (J Sheehan 64), S Thomas (L Koumas 64) — B Johnson, J Cullen, H Wilson (J James, 74) — K Moore.
Booked Sheehan.
Liechtenstein (5-3-2): B Buchel — L Meier (K Kindle, 46), L Traber, S Wieser, J Hofer, M Goppel — S Luchinger (A Netzer, 73), N Hasler, A Sele – F Saglam (V Pizzi, 46), Luque Notaro (A Malin, 70).
Booked Kindle, Pizzi.