![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/skysports-thomas-james_7082897.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWales laboured to a 1-0 win over international minnows Liechtenstein to keep alive their hopes of World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n
Jordan James claimed his first Wales goal from close range after Liechtenstein’s assorted collection of full-time players, office workers and students had held out for over an hour.<\/p>\n
James wheeled away in delight with his obvious relief shared by 3,000 Wales fans filling three sides of the Rheinpark Stadion in Vaduz.<\/p>\n
Moments later, however, James was booked and another late caution for Ethan Ampadu sees both midfielders ruled out of Tuesday’s crunch tie with North Macedonia through suspension.<\/p>\n
That Cardiff City Stadium contest is a game Wales must win to overtake North Macedonia and secure a more favourable draw in the play-offs in March.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Jordan James celebrates with Sorba Thomas<\/p>\n
Craig Bellamy had an unfamiliar view from the stands with the Wales manager serving a touchline ban after receiving a second yellow card in the competition last month.<\/p>\n
Bellamy’s assistant Piet Cremers took his place in the technical area and four of Wales’ starters – James, Ampadu, Joe Rodon Neco Williams – were a booking away from missing out the final qualifier.<\/p>\n
Two of them came unstuck in incidents that could really hurt Wales.<\/p>\n
Leeds midfielder Ampadu captained his country for only the second time with injured pair Aaron Ramsey and Ben Davies absent.<\/p>\n
![\"Wales](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/skysports-daniel-james_7082894.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Wales will have to beat North Macedonia to finish isecond in Group J<\/p>\n
Liechtenstein, ranked 206 out of 210 teams in world football, had not scored in their six qualifying defeats and conceded 23 at an average of nearly four per game.<\/p>\n
Wales predictably dominated possession as Liechtenstein lay in a low defensive block and got bodies behind the ball.<\/p>\n
The home goal remained unthreatened until Nathan Broadhead’s pressing forced an error and James saw his effort from the edge of the box pushed aside by Benjamin Buchel.<\/p>\n
The same combination worked the next opening with James finding Broadhead this time with a precise ball over the top.<\/p>\n
Broadhead’s excellent touch took him past Buchel, but the Wrexham striker could not convert from a tight angle.<\/p>\n
Wales thought they had broken the deadlock after 26 minutes when James headed a deep Sorba Thomas corner back into a congested six-yard box.<\/p>\n
Buchel was flustered under pressure from Dylan Lawlor and Rodon, and his weak punch fell to Broadhead who drove home emphatically.<\/p>\n
But Welsh celebrations were curtailed when Albanian referee Juxhin Xhaja was sent to the pitchside monitor and decided that at least one of the Wales centre-halves was in an offside position from James’ header.<\/p>\n
Emanuel Zund fired wide from distance as Liechtenstein broke their shackles, but Buchel reacted well to foil Mark Harris and James.<\/p>\n
Wales raised the tempo after the break and Thomas delivered a cross to the far post which Daniel James rattled against the woodwork.<\/p>\n
Williams then headed wide from inside the six-yard box as it began to look like one of those nights for Wales.<\/p>\n
But, with the contest having ticked into its 61st minute, Williams played a clever pass for Daniel James to break behind the home defence.<\/p>\n
James cut out Buchel with a delightful ball across the face of goal, and his namesake Jordan had the straightforward task of ending Welsh anxiety.<\/p>\n
‘Focus now shifts to North Macedonia’<\/p>\n
Wales<\/strong> assistant manager Piet Cremers<\/strong>:<\/p>\n “We knew we had to take care of today.<\/p>\n “We did that and now our focus goes to North Macedonia.<\/p>\n “It will be another difficult game in Cardiff but we play at home, we’ve got our fans in numbers and we’ll look to turn it into a positive result.<\/p>\n “This is a type of game where everyone expects you to win 5-0, 6-0, 7-0, but when you come to these places it can be a difficult game.<\/p>\n “We’ve seen that with teams that have played here before, like Belgium who struggled to score goals in the first half.<\/p>\n “It’s a team that’s very well organised, they keep the spaces small, and try to limit your chances.<\/p>\n “We had some good moments to score a second. When you don’t score that second or third goal it becomes more tricky. The players start to force things that little bit more.<\/p>\n “There were moments in the final third where we lacked that bit of detail to create an opportunity and turn it into a shot on goal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales laboured to a 1-0 win over international minnows Liechtenstein to keep alive their hopes of World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":382234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-382233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115557508389709752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}