Wales open with win in World Cup qualifying, Haaland on target for Norway

Wales beat Kazakhstan 3-1 on Saturday to start their bid to qualify for the 2026 World Cup with a win, while Erling Haaland was among the scorers as Norway swept to a 5-0 victory in Moldova.

Wales are chasing a second straight appearance at the World Cup finals after they made it to the 2022 tournament in Qatar, and Craig Bellamy’s team saw off a dogged Kazakhstan side in Cardiff.

Wales went in front in the Group J encounter inside nine minutes with a deflected effort from the Leeds United winger Daniel James.

Kazakhstan, who are 110th in the FIFA rankings, drew level from the penalty spot just after the half-hour mark, Askhat Tagybergen converting following a handball by Connor Roberts.

Wales picked up where they left off in their impressive UEFA Nations League performances at the end of last year as they got the job done in the second half.

Captain Ben Davies restored the lead with a header shortly after the restart. Rabbi Matondo came off the bench to wrap up the win at the death.

“We spoke all week about getting off to a good start and that’s what we did tonight,” James told the BBC.

“It’s so important to get the win tonight and push on for Tuesday,” he added, with Wales next travelling to North Macedonia.

Aleksandar Trajkovski and Visar Musliu netted in the first half before Girona forward Bojan Miovski sealed the win late on as North Macedonia eased to a 3-0 victory away to minnows Liechtenstein.

Group favourites Belgium will not begin their campaign until June.

Norway are desperate to make the most of an exciting generation of players as they seek to qualify for a first major tournament since Euro 2000, and a first World Cup since 1998.

They made short work of Moldova in Chisinau, with full-back Julian Ryerson of Borussia Dortmund giving the visitors an early lead from close range in the Group I encounter.

Manchester City superstar Haaland missed a good chance before adding the second goal midway through the first half, finishing from an Andreas Schjelderup cutback.

Haaland has scored 39 goals in 40 appearances for his country, including eight in seven since the start of this season.

Norway, captained by Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard, scored their third through Thelo Aasgaard of Luton Town. Atletico Madrid forward Alexander Sorloth headed in the fourth just before the interval.

Aron Donnum, on as a substitute, wrapped up a comprehensive victory midway through the second half.

Bigger tests lie ahead for Norway with only the group winners qualifying directly for next year’s finals and the section to be completed by the loser of the Nations League quarter-final tie between Italy and Germany.

In the other game in the group on Saturday, Israel beat Estonia 2-1 in Hungary.

Maksim Paskotsi put Estonia ahead only for an own goal by goalkeeper Karl Jakob Hein to bring Israel level before Eli Dasa got their winner.

Also on Saturday, the Czech Republic edged out the Faroe Islands 2-1 at home in Group L with Bayer Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick getting both of their goals.

That included a late winner after Gunnar Vatnhamar had briefly brought the visitors back on level terms.

Montenegro came from behind to beat Gibraltar 3-1 in the same section, which will be completed by whoever loses the Nations League tie between France and Croatia.