Football betting tips: World Cup qualifying
1pt Wales to win at 29/20 (Betfair, Paddy Power)
0.5pt Sorba Thomas 1+ assists at 9/1 (bet365)
Who'd have thought it.
The very same Craig Bellamy who once took an eight iron to team-mate John Arne Riise while he was safely tucked up in bed as an act of retribution for refusing to do karaoke has been recast as Mr Calm by Wales captain Ben Davies.
As transformations go, it's truly impressive, just as Bellamy's revitalisation of his national team's fortunes has been.
The rookie manager was a brave choice to succeed Robert Page, even with the strong reputation he had forged as an emerging coach working alongside Vincent Kompany at Anderlecht and Burnley.
Four wins and three draws from his opening seven matches speaks for itself.
What are the best bets?
WALES made light of being without key trio Aaron Ramsey, Ethan Ampadu and Harry Wilson to begin World Cup qualifying with a 3-1 home win against Kazakhstan.
North Macedonia won 3-0 in Liechtenstein, who are quite literally almost the worst national side in the world, ranked 204th of 210 FIFA nations.
Macedonia made hard work of some other terrible teams during their recent Nations League campaign too, battling to a pair of 1-0 home wins over Latvia and the Faroe Islands and only beating Armenia 2-0.
Given the start made by Bellamy, backing a WALES WIN at 29/20 is advised.
Away from home they've shown plenty of encouragement, drawing in Turkey (ranked 28th), winning in Montenegro (73rd) and outplaying Iceland (70th) only to surrender a 2-0 lead and have to settle for a point.
A North Macedonia team ranked 67th should be taken care of.
Set-piece Sorba
On-loan Nantes winger SORBA THOMAS has been a regular since Bellamy took charge, playing in various midfield and wide-forward roles and creating numerous opportunities for his team-mates.
His ability to deliver high quality set-pieces was well known during Thomas' time at Huddersfield and he was a constant threat against Kazakhstan, ultimately being rewarded with two ASSISTS.
They were no flukes - he has now created 10 chances in 366 minutes of action under the new Wales boss, making his 9/1 price to provide 1+ ASSISTS on Tuesday far too big.
Team news
It's unlikely Wales will change their XI after a strong performance on Saturday with one or two tweaks in attack possible.
They remain without captain Ramsey and fellow midfielders Ampadu and Wilson, as well as Rhys Norrington-Davies and Wes Burns.
Predicted line-ups
N Macedonia: Dimitrievski; Dimoski, Zajkov, Musliu, Alioski; Bardhi, Alimi; Churlinov, Elmas, Trajkovski; Miovski.
Wales: Darlow; Roberts, Rodon, Davies, Williams; Sheehan, Cullen; Thomas, Brooks, D. James; Johnson.
Match facts
- North Macedonia and Wales met in qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, with both sides winning their home games: 2-1 to North Macedonia in Skopje and 1-0 to Wales in Cardiff.
- Wales have won four of their last six away FIFA World Cup qualifying matches (D1 L1), as many as they had in their previous 26 away games combined (W4 D8 L14).
- North Macedonia have won each of their last six games across all competitions, the longest run of victories in their history.
- Wales are now unbeaten in each of their last 13 competitive matches (W7 D6) and could win three in a row for the first time since November 2020 under Ryan Giggs (1 game)/Rob Page (2 games).
- North Macedonia have won five of their last seven World Cup qualifying games (L2), scoring 3+ goals in four of those wins.
- Wales have lost just one of their last 10 World Cup qualifying away matches (W4 D5) and could win their opening two matches of a qualifying campaign for the tournament for the first time since doing so in the lead up to the 1998 World Cup (two wins vs San Marino).
- North Macedonia’s Bojan Miovski has been directly involved in five goals across his last six international appearances (4 goals, 1 assist), netting in each of his last two – the first time he has done so for the nation.
- After failing to score or assist in any of his first 14 appearances for Wales (6 starts), Sorba Thomas assisted two of the Dragons’ three goals last time out against Kazakhstan. The Nantes winger also created the most chances (3) and recorded the most successful crosses (4) of any Wales players in that victory.
Odds correct at 1540 GMT (24/03/25)
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