Wales 3 – 1 Kazakhstan

Wales opened its World Cup campaign with a 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan.

Daniel James gave Wales an early advantage in front of an almost 32,473 crowd at the Cardiff City stadium, but it was destroyed by the penalty of Askhat Tagybergen, rewarded after Connor Roberts has manipulated.

Kazakhstan threatened to throw a key into work, but the Skipper Ben Davies and the Rabbi Matondo, with his first Wales goal in the last minute, provided a winning departure for the team of Craig Bellamy.

It was not until that time that Welsh fans could breathe easily, but Bellamy will be delighted to bow at three points before a more difficult assignment in the north of Macedonia on Tuesday.

For the very first male meeting between the two nations, Bellamy made four changes compared to their previous match in November – a 4-1 victory against Iceland which took its undefeated start for a record of six games.

Karl Darlow obtained a sign of the head on Danny Ward with the goal and Roberts, Sorba Thomas and David Brooks also returned to the departure alignment after Wales exceeded their Nations League group.

Kazakhstan, at the 110th in the FIFA ranking, arrived at 81 places below Wales, but with a proud record against the British teams that broke Scotland in 2019 and in Northern Ireland twice in Euro 2024.

Wales started slowly with several poorly placed passes and bad keys before taking a ninth minute lead.

A corner routine has broken down, but Swift pressing Liam Cullen and Davies saw the ball break up to James, and his shot diverted Aleksandr Marochkin to Wrongfoot Alexandr Zarutskiy in order to visitors.

It was James ‘eighth international goal and Leeds’ winger was the main Welsh source of danger attacking during the events.

James went under a Nuraly Alip challenge when howls for a penalty were ignored, but Lithuanian referee Donatas Rumsas would soon point to the place.

The cross of the 32nd minute of Islam Chesnokov hit Roberts with proximity, but the arm of the lateral rear was far from his body and there was always a result despite a long Var check.

The Tagybergen kick sank on the line at the slow motion after hitting Darlow, Kazakhstan’s first goal in seven competitive games which dates back to November 2023.

Roberts was at the heart of the next point of discussion after being killed by Maxim Samorodov, the full rear caught on the back of the calf.

Rumsas was sent to the pitchid instructor for another Var check and after the inspection, decided that a yellow card, and not red, was a sufficient punishment for Samorodov.

Two minutes after restarting, Thomas won a corner he made at the distant post, and met Davies with a ball head for only his third goal in 93 appearances.

Cullen pulled after a good work of Brooks and replacing him Jordan James was refused by Zarutskiy’s sprawling safeguard while Wales increased pressure.

But Wales had to wait until the 90th minute for the nerves to be completely calmed.

Jordan James sprayed a delicious pass to Thomas and his cunning allowed him to deliver a cross that Matondo sent happily.