Craig Bellamy had waited 10 months for this. Neco Williams’ free-kick, lashed in two minutes after the restart at Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday night, gave Wales a 2-1 win over Norway and ended a six-game winless run stretching back to November 2025. It was the Wales head coach’s first victory of 2026 — and his first in the top tier of the Nations League in nine attempts at that level.
The release was obvious, and so was what had been building up behind it. In a lengthy post-match press conference, Bellamy spoke about the criticism aimed at him through the winless spell, said he had “felt the stick” since March’s World Cup play-off defeat by Bosnia-Herzegovina, and admitted the abuse had reached his family. “It’s been a really difficult couple of months,” he said.
Williams and James turn it around in Cardiff
Norway, for 35 minutes, looked exactly like the side sitting above Wales in Group A4. Oscar Bobb put them ahead inside 11 minutes and Wales were chasing a fourth straight defeat without scoring in the competition.
Daniel James changed that in the 38th minute, and the game turned decisively at the break. Torbjørn Heggem was shown a straight red card in the 46th minute for denying a goalscoring opportunity, and Williams punished the free-kick almost immediately — 48 minutes on the clock, Norway down to 10 men, Wales ahead for the first time in the campaign.
The margin flatters neither side. Wales needed the sending-off. But they also took it, which is more than they managed across three previous matches in which they had scored nothing at all: a 1-0 loss in Lisbon to João Félix’s deflected strike on 24 September, and a 2-0 defeat in Copenhagen three days later.
‘Why can’t we have each other’s backs?’
The winless run that ended on Thursday had six parts, and it started with the heaviest blow of Bellamy’s tenure. Wales thrashed North Macedonia 7-1 in World Cup qualifying last November, then lost the play-off semi-final to Bosnia-Herzegovina in March, missing out on the 2026 World Cup. Summer friendlies brought a 1-0 defeat by Canada and a 3-0 loss to England. Then Portugal and Denmark.
Running alongside that was the Burnley episode. Bellamy, appointed in July 2024, held talks over a move to the Premier League club in June, and a section of the Wales support has not let it go. He addressed it without naming it directly.
- “The summer wasn’t easy, then these games weren’t easy.”
- “I’ve seen it; I’ve drawn on experience because I’ve seen managers before me get it.”
- “It’s not me but I have kids and a wife; they see it.”
- “I give everything for my country. Everything. I turned down big money to keep doing this.”
He stopped short of claiming immunity — he accepted nobody is above criticism — but framed the tone as the problem rather than the scrutiny. “Why can’t we have each other’s backs? Why don’t we look after each other more?” he asked. “It’s too easy, and we’re too quick.”
Wales managers have been here before. Bellamy is the fourth man to hold the job since Chris Coleman left in 2017, and the comparison that hangs over him — Euro 2016, then Rob Page’s Qatar qualification — is a high bar that successive campaigns have failed to clear. What is different now is a coach prepared to say in public that the job has cost him something personally.
Three points, and Denmark on Sunday
The table is unforgiving. Wales have three points from three matches with a goal difference of minus two, bottom of Group A4. Portugal have nine from three. Denmark and Norway are both on three, which means Thursday’s win has at least made the group competitive for Wales rather than academic. Only the top two go through to the quarter-finals in March 2027.
The schedule gives Bellamy no time to enjoy the reprieve. Denmark visit Cardiff on Sunday, 4 October — the same side that beat Wales 2-0 in Copenhagen a week earlier. Then comes the November window: Norway away on Saturday 14 November, followed by Portugal in Cardiff on Tuesday 17 November.
Beating Denmark would put Wales level on points with Norway and Denmark with two games left and turn a one-off result into a run. Losing would return the conversation to exactly where it was on Wednesday, with the added complication that Bellamy has now told everyone how much that conversation hurts.
Either way, the record is no longer blank. Wales have scored, won, and taken points from the Nations League’s top tier for the first time since they were relegated from it. For a coach who spent the summer being told he had failed, that is the only argument that counts.
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Sources: [ESPN match report](https://www.espn.com/soccer/report/_/gameId/401861100) · [Yahoo Sports — Bellamy speaks out over criticism](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/bellamy-speaks-over-criticism-norway-225614859.html) · [Portugal 1-0 Wales, ESPN](https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/401861044/wales-portugal) · [beIN Sports — Bellamy on Portugal](https://www.beinsports.com/en-us/soccer/uefa-nations-league/articles/bellamy-concedes-wales-had-to-suffer-a-lot-against-portugal-2026-09-25) · [UEFA Nations League 2026/27 fixtures](https://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/news/02a2-1fea7079900a-801b2c5f6c9e-1000–2026-27-uefa-nations-league-league-phase-fixtures-by-team/) · [Wales fixtures, ESPN](https://www.espn.com/soccer/team/fixtures/_/id/578/wales)
Word count: 738. One note on the brief: the Norway score is 2-1, not 2-0 as some aggregator sites reported — ESPN and the post-match reports both have Bobb scoring for Norway on 11 minutes.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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