A scintillating Wales performance was the perfect set-up for a home play-off for next year’s World Cup finals as captain Harry Wilson’s hat-trick underlined a 7-1 win over North Macedonia, their biggest victory in 47 years.
Knowing their play-off status was already assured and with no real hope of a Belgium slip against Liechtenstein which would have sealed a shock group victory, it was a matter of building momentum for Craig Bellamy’s side – and avoiding a Pot 1 opponent in next March’s semi-finals.
They made the perfect start in a febrile Cardiff atmosphere with Wilson slotting home an early penalty before David Brooks’ deflected second appeared to put Wales in cruise control inside 20 minutes.
But a third goal in five manic minutes put the champagne on ice as a ball in behind caught out Joe Rodon, before an unfortunately timed slip from Karl Darlow allowed Bojan Miovski to give Macedonia a life-line with a simple finish.
Once Brennan Johnson restored their two-goal advantage minutes later with a stunning curling strike however, there was only one team at the races.
Brennan Johnson’s strike gave Wales a 3-1 lead – after which they never looked back
Dan James sealed victory at the end of a silky passing move 12 minutes into the second period before James added his second with a trademark free-kick from 25 yards.
Wales will have delighted Craig Bellamy by continuing to turn the screw despite already sealing their home draw, as Wilson completed his hat-trick with another penalty before substitute Nathan Broadhead put Cardiff in seventh heaven by heading home late on.
Bellamy’s side now face a one-legged home semi-final against one of Kosovo, the Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina or Albania in March. The draw will be conducted on Thursday at 12pm, with coverage live on Sky Sports digital platforms.
‘Wales deliver complete performance’
Sky Sports News’ Geraint Hughes in Cardiff:
Wales have what they wanted, the home play-off semi-final next March. They’ll discover who stands in their way of reaching the World Cup on Thursday, but Wales have proved to themselves they can go through a qualifying campaign by being bold and brave.
Criag Bellamy said when he first was appointed as head coach that one of his pressing aims was to create an identity within his teams. The supporters have been able to see that over the last 18 months as they’ve witnessed periods of games where Wales have looked wonderful, but – and there is always a but – sometimes things don’t work out, don’t go to plan and there has to be some pain along the way.
Here, Bellamy’s Wales delivered a performance that wasn’t just for 20, 30, 45 minutes, but was complete. It was all the good bits Wales have shown, but for 90 minutes.
Speed, pace, fast runners, slick and quick.
That’s what Bellamy and his coaches had drilled into Wales and the players delivered and kept delivering on a memorable night in Cardiff and it’s the memory of this game and everything learned leading up to that must be bottled up.
If you can do it once and prove to yourself it can be done, then go and do it again.
Bellamy and his team will fancy their chances against anyone at home in Cardiff, it’s become an inspirational home for the team and the crowd does raise them although on this occasion it was the speed in purpose of the Wales players that led the crowd.
Bellamy: That was as close to perfection as I’ve seen
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Craig Bellamy lauded Wales for their performance in their 7-1 win over North Macedonia which set up a home play-off for the 2026 World Cup.
Wales head coach Craig Bellamy to BBC Sport:
“I really enjoyed it, even from the first few minutes. Speaking to the players just before we came here, I felt we could really enjoy it with the way they play and how we were able to combat that.
I said to them at the end, I’m not a perfect person, I haven’t come across anyone who is, but maybe I take a little bit of that back because that was as close to the perfect performance as I’ve seen.”
Wilson: We had a point to prove
Wales captain Harry Wilson to BBC Sport:
“An amazing night for me, but tonight was about the team. We wanted to show how good a team we are.
“The team were disappointed after the Liechtenstein game – even though we dominated the game, it would have been nice to score a few more goals.
“We were determined to go out there tonight and show people that we can not only keep possession, but we can also punish teams as well.”
When is the 2026 World Cup draw?
The draw for the 2026 World Cup will take place in Washington on December 5.
President Trump will join FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the John F Kennedy Center – a performing arts venue where Trump is chairman – to decide the group stage fixtures.
Announcing the draw venue at the White House in August, Trump said the World Cup was “the biggest event in sports”, while Infantino declared the 104 matches would be like “104 Super Bowls”.
The draw will take place from 12pm local time (5pm UK time).
When is the 2026 World Cup?
The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup takes place from June 11 to July 19, 2026.
It will be the 23rd edition of the tournament.
