Nov 20,2024
Wales won Nations League promotion as Liam Cullen's first two international goals helped them to a 4-1 victory over Iceland.
Craig Bellamy’s side completed an unbeaten six-game campaign and overhauled Turkey – 3-1 losers in Montenegro – at the top of the group to secure elevation to League A.
That almost certainly handed Wales a World Cup play-off place to fall back on should they not automatically qualify for the 2026 tournament.
Promotion was achieved the hard way following Andri Gudjohnsen’s early strike, and for 25 minutes Wales were staring at a relegation play-off against a League C runner-up.
Swansea striker Cullen, winning his seventh cap, turned the tide with a first-half double before Brennan Johnson and Harry Wilson crowned victory with wonderful strikes.
It was Wilson’s fourth goal in this Nations League campaign and his 12th in total for Wales.
Scotland missed out on pot two of the World Cup qualifying draw after both Slovakia and Czech Republic won their final Nations League matches.
Wins over Croatia and Poland in the past week gave Steve Clarke's side the chance to move far enough up the FIFA rankings to get into pot two after a 14-month wait for a competitive victory saw them drift down.
Scotland could even have jumped in amongst the top seeds but needed Croatia to lose to Portugal on Monday.
After other results went against them in previous days, a 1-1 draw in Split left the Scots looking for either the Czech Republic or Slovakia to drop points at home in their last Nations League games.
But both sides won their respective games, the Czechs coming out on top in a 2-1 victory over Georgia while Slovakia beat Estonia 1-0, leaving Scotland to have to settle for a place in pot three.
In League A, already-qualified Germany conceded a stoppage-time equaliser after conceding a penalty and had to settle for a 1-1 draw away to Hungary in their final Nations League group match on Tuesday.
Hungary's Dominik Szoboszlai scored from the spot with the last kick of the game to cancel out Felix Nmecha's 76th minute goal. The hosts already had a place in the League A/B playoffs.
Bosnia fought back to claim only their second point of their Nations League campaign as they held a second-string Netherlands side to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday in a match with nothing riding on the outcome.
Ermedin Demirovic equalised in the 67th minute, as Bosnia chased a positive result in an effort to give veteran striker Edin Dzeko a fitting send-off in his final international but the draw stretched their 13-month winless streak to 12 games.
Brian Brobbey had given the much-changed Dutch outfit a 24th-minute lead at the Bilino Polje Stadium after coach Ronald Koeman fielded an entirely fresh lineup for their last fixture in Group A3.
With additional reporting: Reuters
