Craig Bellamy says Wales’ stunning 7-1 win over North Macedonia was “as close to a perfect performance as I’ve seen” as his team booked a World Cup play-off spot.
Wales and North Macedonia went into their final qualifying match with 13 points knowing top spot in Group J was out of their reach, while Belgium automatically qualified for next year’s tournament.
But Bellamy’s side made sure they kept their World Cup hopes alive thanks to a hat-trick from Harry Wilson.
He opened the scoring from the penalty spot before David Brooks quickly added a second, but North Macedonia reduced the deficit through Bojan Miovski.
However, Wales responded brilliantly, with Brennan Johnson and Dan James scoring before Wilson completed his hat-trick, and Nathan Broadhead also got on the scoresheet late on.
Wales scored more than seven goals in a match for the fifth time in their history and for the first time since October 1978: a 7-0 win against Malta in a European Championship qualifier.
“I really enjoyed it. I spoke to the players at the meeting before we came here and said we could really enjoy this. There could be something in it for us, the way they play and how we can combat that,” Bellamy told BBC Match of the Day Wales.
“I said to them at the end, I’m not a perfect person, I haven’t met anyone who is. But maybe I’ll take back a little bit of that because that was as close to a perfect performance as I’ve seen. That was incredible.”
“The way we could use the ball, our timing. We didn’t play with one striker, we had three.” [number] 10s. But they were in the position where you drag someone out and someone runs, then the wide players were connected too.
“We were just so clean with the ball, and that gives you good opportunities. It was one of those days where we were able to take advantage of them.”
England and Scotland automatically qualified for next year’s World Cup, with the latter securing their place for the first time in 28 years, and Bellamy wants this to be motivation for Wales to join them.
“We will adapt [for the play-offs]’ he added. ‘There are still difficult teams.
“Congratulations to Scotland tonight as well. I think it’s great to see the home countries doing well, I really do.
“That has given us more incentive. For me personally, I want to join them, so hopefully we can do that.”
Since the start of 2024, Wilson has been involved in thirteen goals (nine goals, four assists) for Wales, six more than any other player for the country.
His hat-trick took him to 18 goals for his country, moving him into eighth place on the all-time top scorer list; he is now only one behind current boss Bellamy.
“We wanted to show how good a team we are,” Wilson told BBC Match of the Day Wales.
“The team was disappointed after the match against Liechtenstein – even though we dominated the match, it would have been nice to score a few more goals.
“We were determined to go out and show people that we can not only keep possession, but also punish teams.
“For me personally it was great to get the hat-trick, and I’m really happy that the other boys got their goals too.”
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