Key events
35 min: Craig Bellamy isn’t so content now. A lot of shouting and gesticulating. That equaliser, which came out of nowhere, has stunned the Cardiff City Stadium.
33 min: Back and to the left. The JFK pen. Where were you when Askhat Tagybergen shot?
GOAL! Wales 1-1 Kazakhstan (Tagybergen 32 pen)
Nope, the decision stands. The captain Tagybergen to take. He hits a poor effort just right of centre. The ball hits the diving Darlow’s boot … but instead of stopping, spins back and to the left, over the line and into the net.
31 min: Craig Bellamy smiles incredulously, and captain Ben Davies tells the referee how he sees it. A long VAR check. But Roberts’ arm was outstretched and this surely won’t be overturned.
Penalty for Kazakhstan!
29 min: Chesnokov, on the left-hand corner of the Welsh box, crosses. The ball hits the arm of the nearby Roberts, who was in the process of turning his back on play. The ref points immediately to the spot.
27 min: … then up the other end, it could have been 2-0, James sending Brooks free down the right. Brooks looks for Thomas, all alone down the inside-left channel, but makes a mess of the simple crossfield pass and the chance is gone.
26 min: Samorodov advances down the left and crosses long, with Chesnokov lurking at the far stick. Williams does exceptionally well to head clear under pressure. Had he not intervened, that could have been the equaliser.
25 min: All a bit scrappy. Craig Bellamy looks content enough.
23 min: Wales are in full control of this now, having weathered that early … well, not a storm exactly, but a good old blow. They’ve enjoyed 75 percent of possession so far.
21 min: There was a bit of contact between Alip and James, mind. The circus-entertainer nature of the forward flip, plus the fact any foul might have been just outside the box anyway, could well have influenced the referee into siding with Kazakhstan over that one.
19 min: James tries to squeeze his way into the Kazakh penalty box from the right wing. He flips over spectacularly, with Alip sliding across him, but while the crowd scream for a spot kick, neither player nor team-mates make too much of a fuss about it.
18 min: Brooks executes a deft spin and flick to send Alip off for a copy of the Echo. Lovely skill … but then, with acres opening up in front of him, a thunderingly heavy touch leads to his shipping possession immediately. From the sublime to the ridiculous in a split second.
16 min: Chesnokov goes down clutching his face, having taken an accidental arm from Williams. He complains when he eventually gets up, but the referee’s not interested. We play on.
14 min: Thomas works his way down the left again, reaching the byline and cutting back for Johnson, whose first-time sidefoot is deflected wide left by Marochkin. The corner’s worked back up the line then swung in, Rodon pinging a header intended for the top-right corner high and wide.
13 min: Wales, fuelled by the goal, pick up the speed. Thomas curls in from the left. James tries to hook the dropping ball goalwards but it’s easy pickings for Zarutskiy.
11 min: That was as scrappy as it comes, but Wales won’t care. It has to be said: that came against the early run of play. It should settle Welsh nerves.
GOAL! Wales 1-0 Kazakhstan (James 9)
Roberts up the other end this time. He feeds James down the right, and Wales win their first corner of the evening. Brooks, Roberts and James over-elaborate, and the visitors intercept. But Tagybergen takes a loose touch just to the right of the six-yard box. Cullen pokes the loose ball to James, who shoots straight at Zarutskiy … only for the ball to take a huge deflection to wrong-foot the keeper and fly in.
7 min: Kazakhstan are seeing more of the ball. They probe down both flanks, Zhaksylykov on the right, Vorogovskiy out left. Roberts does well to end the period of away possession by intercepting and blasting the ball off an opponent for a goal kick.
5 min: Tagybergen sends the corner in from the right. Cullen clears. Chesnokov dribbles down the right but falls over his own feet. This is an unexpectedly bright start from the visitors.
4 min: Yep, that seems to be the case, because Samorodov zips down the left, enters the Welsh box, and takes a shot that deflects out for the first corner of the game.
2 min: Not long after the restart, Zhaksylykov chases a long pass down the left. The ball flies out for a throw. A couple of early signs that Kazakhstan don’t intend to spend the entire evening sitting back?
Kazakhstan get the ball rolling. Tapalov hares down the right but Williams batters the ball off him and it pings out for a goal kick.
A light show dances in the air above the Cardiff City Stadium, then the teams emerge from the tunnel. Wales in red, Kazakhstan in second-choice blue. We’ll be off once the national hymns and arias have been sung.
Craig Bellamy speaks to BBC Cymru Wales. “We have put the team with the best profile out … we are going to have to be patient … we’ll have to wait and see … the plan through the week was trying to work on every solution no matter what … it’s been great as a manager so far … it’s been really special … hopefully we’ll be able to follow what’s been happening with Wales for a number of years with a positive result tonight.”
We might see one of Chelsea’s latest signings in action tonight. Dastan Satpayev, a 16-year-old striker/left-winger who currently plays for Kazakhstan champions Kairat, became his country’s youngest-ever full international last week, coming on as a sub in a friendly against Curacao. He’s signed a five-year deal with Chelsea and will arrive at Stamford Bridge in August 2026 when he turns 18. He’s on the bench this evening.
Pre-match postbag. “Club football is great but you can’t beat the goddamn fun of the real thing. Our trip to watch Tuesday’s Macedonia-Wales qualifier in Skopje nearly fell foul of yesterday’s little hiccup at Heathrow. Not to worry: it ended up with a taxi to Manchester Airport and an unscheduled late-night kebab in Istanbul. Another flight and a hire car later, we now find ourselves in a vast casino on the Kosovo-Macedonia border. Bucket hats might break the dress code but things are definitely looking up as we are sitting at an overstaffed bar where the drinks are free. So kind of a casino to provide free beer. September’s trip to the Kazakhstan game will be plain sailing compared to this” – Alan Pugh
“Great to see so many Leeds names on the Wales team sheet. What does this say about both/either? Dreaming of greatness while tripping over their own bootlaces? Obviously Wales will be hoping for a win, clean sheet and bonus point (errr, sorry, wrong game). Now that their rugby is officially [word redacted by Family Website Editor], will Craig’s boyos be the big new hope? It’s a funny old game” – Jeremy Boyce
Today’s other game in Group J has already finished. North Macedonia have beaten Liechtenstein 3-0 in Vaduz, with goals from Aleksandar Trajkovski, Visar Musliu and Bojan Miovski. Wales travel to North Macedonia on Tuesday, while Kazakhstan go to Liechtenstein. The fifth country in this group, Belgium, don’t begin their campaign until June.
Wales make four changes to the team that started the 4-1 Nations League victory over Iceland. Karl Darlow replaces Danny Ward in goal, while David Brooks, Connor Roberts and Sorba Thomas take the places of the benched Ben Cabango and Mark Harris and the injured Harry Wilson.
The teams
Wales: Darlow, Roberts, Rodon, Ben Davies, Williams, Sheehan, Thomas, Daniel James, Brooks, Johnson, Cullen.
Subs: Ward, Adam Davies, Mepham, Cabango, Allen, Lawrence, Matondo, Moore, Dasilva, Jordan James, Mark Harris, Broadhead.
Kazakhstan: Zarutskiy, Tapalov, Bystrov, Marochkin, Alip, Vorogovskiy, Chesnokov, Tagybergen, Muzhikov, Samorodov, Zhaksylykov.
Subs: Pokatilov, Seisen, Sultanbek Astanov, Zhumakhanov, Zhaksybaev, Kenzhebek, Nauryzbek Zhagorov, Zhukov, Aymbetov, Satpaev, Orazov, Mukhamed.
Referee: Donatas Rumsas (Lithuania).
Preamble
One of the top-30 sides in the world host the team ranked 110th, a collective which has lost ten of its last 11 competitive matches, drawing the other 0-0. On paper, this is as close as it gets to a surefire thing, and thus a hard sell. But then football is football, so you never know … and in any case, Wales right now are just so much goddamn fun. For example, has a goalless draw ever been as enjoyable as this?
Not too often, is the correct answer to that one. So let’s settle down for some more top-drawer Saturday-night light entertainment courtesy of Bruce Forsyth Craig Bellamy and the lads. Kick-off is at 7.45pm GMT. It’s on!
