Louise Taylor’s verdict has landed. Here it is! Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
Craig Bellamy talks BBC Cymru Wales. “A game we were in big control of … more than I thought we would be, to be honest … I really liked us today … we were very good … but the last five or six minutes … we needlessly gave one or two free kicks away … then they score … I dunno, I just didn’t feel like it was over … I knew it was late … the reaction of the players, they were ready to kick off … you knew it wasn’t over … then when I found out what minute we scored … wow … what an incredible group, huh?! … we didn’t deserve to come out with nothing, no way … the emotions … I’d have to go through it again … shock is probably it! … this in the long run will give us so, so much … to the last kick … going 1-0 down … we’re aware of the events … even in my head, I was thinking, maybe it’s meant to be … but it isn’t with us and we didn’t accept it … if you watched Joe [Allen] … obviously he gave the ball away but his next few touches … that’s where you see a real top player … he didn’t put his head down … got on the ball … able to progress it forward and helped us lead to a goal … of course I would like six points … it’s not the worst start … I just have a feeling with this group and I’m quite excited about that.”
David Brooks talks to BBC Cymru Wales. “Obviously it was a very tough game … it’s one little mistake from a very good player who has been one of our best players ever … the boys wanted to get him out of trouble … and help in the campaign … we deserved more from the game but we’ll take a point from where we were with a minute to go … I’m absolutely buzzing to be able to help the team and get a very good point … we’re a good group with a lot of quality … it would have been very unjust if they walked away with three points … we’ll go home happy … hopefully we can get six points in the summer camp.”
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North Macedonia can’t believe what’s just happened. Their star man Eljif Elmas kicks up a divot in impotent frustration. Craig Bellamy meanwhile embraces his former Burnley mucker Darko Churlinov, almost apologetically … before breaking off and beaming a smile around the stadium. But a draw is just about right on the balance of play. Wales were slightly the better team for the most part, but North Macedonia pushed hard for a winner towards the end, and it looked like they’d forced it with that late pressure. But Wales didn’t give up, and responded to Joe Allen’s sickening mistake by scoring a sickener of their own. A draw that will very much feel like a Welsh win. Football, eh? Uffern waedlyd!
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FULL TIME: North Macedonia 1-1 Wales
Blagoja Milevski puts his head in his hands. There’s barely time to restart. What drama here!
GOAL! North Macedonia 1-1 Wales (Brooks 90+6)
A long ball pumped down the middle. Moore wins a header. Musliu should clear but whiffs. Brooks beats Dimitrievski to the dropping ball, poking it past the keeper. It dribbles into the bottom corner, past Dimoski, performing another air-swipe on the line!
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90 min +4: Thomas dribbles hard down the right and reaches the byline, before cutting back for Jordan James, in space on the penalty spot! A huge chance! But Churlinov throws himself in the road of James’s shot to block! What an intervention.
90 min +3: Thomas crosses from the right but a clearance is cheered almost as loudly as the goal, then Jordan James concedes a needless foul, barging with frustration into Trajkovski. Pressure off.
90 min +2: Miovski is booked for taking his shirt off in celebration. That’s his evening done, anyway, as he makes way for Trajkovski.
GOAL! North Macedonia 1-0 Wales (Miovski 90+1)
Allen turns and plays an awful backpass intended for Rodon down the middle of the park. It sends Miovski clear! Miovski gives Darlow the eyes and slots into the bottom right. Simple as that! Oh Joe.
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90 min: The hosts cheer up when the decision over the goal kick is reversed. It’s a corner. Bardhi takes, but Rodon clears. There will be four additional minutes. And in the first of them …
89 min: North Macedonia are turning up the pressure. Wales can’t get out. Churlinov is clumsily brought down by Davies on the right touchline. Alioski curls the free kick in. It pings off a Welsh head, but a goal kick is awarded. The hosts not happy.
88 min: Moore heads the corner clear. North Macedonia come back at Wales. Bardhi crosses from the left. Rodon heads clear.
87 min: Before it can be taken, Ilievski is replaced by Dimoski.
86 min: Allen’s first contribution is to hang out a leg across Ilievski. He really should go into the book, but the referee, perhaps mindful that Allen is freshly on and perhaps not up to speed, just awards the foul. There’s nice. Alioski swings the free kick in, and the ball’s clanked behind for a corner.
84 min: Wales make a double change, replacing Johnson and Sheehan with Allen and Matondo.
82 min: Bardhi dinks a cute pass between Williams and Sheehan to release Alioski into the Wales area down the left. Alioski whips an instant low ball across the face of goal. Miovski and Churlinov both slide in. Any contact and they’ll be bundling the ball home, but somehow the cross evades both of them. Wow. That was very close. And rather fortunate from the Welsh point of view.
80 min: Rodon is booked for clattering into the back of Miovski as the pair contested a loose ball in the centre circle. Studs showing, he can have no complaints with that.
78 min: Dimitrievski good to go again.
77 min: As the physio attends to Dimitrievski – he’s hurt his side this time – everyone else takes on some water. More tactical instruction, too.
76 min: Brooks comes on for Broadhead and immediately wins a corner down the right. He takes it himself. Davies tries to meet it but Dimitrievski punches clear. The keeper lands awkwardly and, not for the first time tonight, requires some treatment.
74 min: Elmas feeds Bardhi down the inside-left channel. Bardhi swivels and shoots but his shot is deflected out for a corner, from which nothing comes.
73 min: Pretty sure that, had Johnson scored there, VAR would have had something to say about the initial cross, which appeared to curl way behind the byline. But it’s all moot now.
71 min: Thomas reaches the byline to the left of goal. His cross takes an absurd deflection, looping over Dimitrievski who flaps straight into the road of Johnson. A shot is smacked goalwards. The keeper is out of the game, but Musliu clears off the line, and then the whistle goes for a foul. What a merry mess.
70 min: Wales complete some crisp triangles but don’t go anywhere in particular. The hosts happy enough to sit back and see what’s what.
69 min: Thomas to James again down the left. Serafimov sticks to the right shoulder of James and flatly refuses to let him cut infield. A determined dribble met by some staunch defending.
67 min: Thomas crosses from the left and finds Jordan James, who clanks a header way wide and yay high.
66 min: Jordan James rolls a pass into the North Macedonia box from the right. Moore, with his back to goal on the penalty spot, can’t trap and turn. Both teams in search of the opener.
65 min: Elmas races after a long pass down the left. He reaches the byline and hooks back for Churlinov, who chests down before pearling a rising shot towards the top right. Darlow, finally pressed into action, saves the day by sticking out a strong arm. Much better from North Macedonia.
64 min: Dan James is replaced by Moore.
63 min: Churlinov’s first act is to chase a speculative pass down the right. Too strong. Goal kick.
61 min: A double change for the hosts. Alimi and Zajkov are replaced by Churlinov and Atanasov.
59 min: The crowd bursts into warm, emotional, heartfelt applause. The significance of the minute clear and obvious. May all those lost rest well.
58 min: Elmas cuts in from the left and shoots. Rodon blocks. This is opening up.
57 min: Johnson dribbles down the left and cuts back for Broadhead, who opens his body and aims for the top-right corner. The ball flies towards the top-right corner of the stand. Then another wave, and Thomas crosses from the left for Johnson, only for the ball to bobble before he can shoot.
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56 min: Dan James twists Alioski’s blood out on the right. His low cross should be blootered clear by Musliu, but the defender takes a fresh-air swipe at the ball, wrongfooting absolutely everyone. The ball continues on its path and whistles an inch or two past the left-hand post. Had that been on target, the keeper, his feet planted, wasn’t getting there. Johnson irritated that he two was surprised by the mistake, because had he reacted, he’d have had a tap-in.
54 min: Ilievski curls a cross in from the right touchline. Darlow thinks about coming off his line to claim, but decides against it. Williams tidies up. There’s not a whole lot going on.
52 min: Wales stroke passes left and right. Patient possession. The home fans getting a little antsy. Jordan James then takes a pop from the best part of 30 yards, an overly ambitious waste of time. Easy for Dimitrievski.
50 min: Elmas romps down the right and crosses long for Miovski, his only option on the other flank. Miovski doesn’t back himself to burst into the box, and turns tail. He then makes a futile chase for Bardhi’s misplaced pass into touch. Miovski furrows his brow and moans a bit. Nothing is happening for North Macedonia in the final third.
48 min: … but it nearly comes to life when Thomas feeds Jordan James down the left with a clever diagonal roll in from the touchline. James cuts back to … nobody. Shame about the final ball, because the move was neat.
47 min: A low-key start to the second half.
Wales get the second half underway. No changes.
Half-time entertainment.
HALF TIME: North Macedonia 0-0 Wales
Sorba Thomas should have scored. Other than that, nothing much has happened in front of goal. It’s still been a decent-enough watch, though.
45 min +4: A Wales corner from the right. Thomas sends it in. The hosts clear. Then Sheehan skittles Elmas from behind. No booking for Sheehan, but there is one for North Macedonia coach Blagoja Milevski, who is incandescent at this state of affairs.
45 min +2: In the second of four additional minutes, Serafimov is booked for a late rugby-style challenge on Johnson. He’ll miss North Macedonia’s game with Belgium.
45 min: Dimitrievski prepares to send a drop-kick upfield. Johnson tries to put him off. The keeper tells Johnson to bugger off. Johnson refuses. A stand-off. Then the referee arrives to offer Johnson some beneficial advice. Johnson smiles cheekily and jogs away. Dimitrievski launches it. What a lot of fuss over the square root of nowt.
44 min: Kostadinov comes sliding in late on Jordan James. Another possible booking, but the ref is in a laissez-faire mood tonight.
42 min: Dan James sashays in from the right and tries to ping Johnson free with one of those reverse passes down the channel. The pass doesn’t come off, but clanks off a nearby defender and nearly sits up invitingly. James can’t get there in time for a shot, before the ball’s hoicked clear.
40 min: Elmas jinks down the left and ends an elegant slalom by winning a corner. The set post leads to a panicked game of head tennis in the Wales six-yard box. Jordan James is forced to eyebrow behind. Corner number two coming in from the left … and it nearly leads to something special, Bardhi and Alioski attempting the old David Beckham / Paul Scholes trick. Bardhi cuts the corner back but Alioski can only volley wildly over the bar. Still, full marks for ambition, as the hosts finally spring into action.
38 min: Sheehan belts a long-distance shot straight down Dimitrievski’s throat. Wales definitely on top now.
37 min: Better from Thomas, this, as he zips down the left, gets past Ilievski, and skelps a cross from a tight angle that Dimitrievski is forced to tip over the bar. Nothing comes of the corner.
35 min: Wales are beginning to dominate possession, and the home fans aren’t particularly pleased about it. A lot of agitated hooting and hollering.
33 min: Daniel James plays a cute reverse pass down the inside-right channel to release his namesake Jordan into the box. A low cross finds Thomas free, coming in from the left. Thomas has to score, but somehow screws his shot back across the face of goal. That’s an awful miss. Wales should be leading.
32 min: Jordan James has his pocket picked 35 yards from the Wales goal by the extended leg of Kostadinov. The ball pings to Alimi, who starts to stride his way down the middle, only to show enough of the ball to Mepham. A crunching tackle saves the day for Wales. Jordan James owes Mepham one there.
30 min: The game restarts and Miovski tries to smash a shot through a crowd on the edge of the Welsh box. The ball’s never pinballing its way through that. Blocked. Cleared.
29 min: Yep, he’s definitely going to continue, but he pulled quite the face upon putting some weight on that foot. Not sure he’s comfortable at all.
28 min: Dimitrievski is still down. He’s grimacing quite a lot. He steels himself to pull his boot back on. Looks like he’ll battle on for now.
26 min: North Macedonia keeper Dimitrievski is down and demanding treatment. He looks to have a problem with his left foot. On come the doctors, off comes the boot. Time for Wales to take on some water and tactical direction from their manager.
25 min: Ilievski goes skittering down the right touchline before whipping a low cross to the near post. Mepham batters clear with Miovski lurking.
23 min: Williams leaps to win a header, only to be accidentally nudged in mid-air by Elmas. Williams lands awkwardly. Just winded by the looks of it. He’s back up again soon enough.
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21 min: Dan James wins a corner down the right. Thomas sends it long. Rodon wins a header but he’s too far out to trouble Dimitrievski.
19 min: Elmas turns Rodon with absurd ease on the left and goes dancing up the touchline. But he’s eventually crowded out, and Jordan James races off down the middle. His attempt to one-two his way into the box runs into a brick wall. It’s good fun, this, with both teams firmly in front-foot mode.
18 min: Now Alioski tugs illegally at Broadhead’s shirt. He’s really pushing his luck here.
17 min: Williams advances down the right before swiftly turning tail near the byline. Alioski, who has been sat down by the trick, throws out an arm and tap-tackles Williams on the ankle. No card, which is a result for North Macedonia given the cynicism. The resulting free kick, which is effectively a corner, is nothing to write home about.
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15 min: Broadhead glides in from the right before swivelling and attempting to play a defence-splitter down the channel for Dan James. He gets the pass all wrong. But Wales come again, Broadhead releasing the same player down the right flank. Dan James tries to find Johnson in the middle with a low cross but again the final pass is lacking.
13 min: Broadhead wins a 50-50 challenge with Aliosko, getting to a bouncing ball first. It looks like a clean challenge, and one which sets Wales off on a promising attack, but Alioski goes down and the whistle goes. Adding insult to injury, Broadhead then receives the one-more-and-you’re-booked lecture from the ref. All seems a bit much, but at least it’s not a yellow card.
11 min: The referee stops the game to order Thomas to pull up his socks. Jack Grealish would last about two minutes with this dude.
9 min: Johnson nutmegs Serafimov and wins a free kick near the centre circle. Williams wedges it down the inisde-left channel, hoping to find Johnson in the box. There’s too much oomph on the pass, though, and Johnson is unable to keep the ball in play, despite telescoping a leg in the hope of hooking it back in.
7 min: Thomas again down the left flank. This time he gets the ball, and whips low and hard into the centre. Dimitrievski smothers.
6 min: Darlow takes his sweet time over what should be a simple pass upfield, and nearly gets closed down by Bardhi. An additional half-second of dallying there and the keeper was in all sorts.
5 min: Davies tries to release Thomas down the left flank but slices the pass out for a throw. It’s already clear that Wales fancy it along this flank.
3 min: … and now it’s North Macedonia’s turn to show their hand. Kostadinov romps down the inside-right channel before lashing a low drive inches wide of the left-hand post. If the match keeps going like this we’ll be doing well.
1 min: Nothing comes of it, though. Still, that’s a statement of intent from Wales.
29 secs: Jordan James makes good down the left and sends a speculative curler towards the bottom right. Dimitrievski is forced to turn around the post. The first corner of the evening didn’t take long.
North Macedonia kick off. A huge roar.
… but first a minute of silence for the poor souls who lost their lives in Kocani. Immaculately observed.
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The teams are out. North Macedonia in black, Wales in red. We’ll be off once the anthems have been sung.
Bellamy also has a word with BBC Cymru Wales. “Energy … freshness … really important as it’s a very quick turnaround … North Macedonia have real counter-attacking ability … very good individual players, especially at the top end … we have to respect that … we’re prepared for as many scenarios as we can be … we’ll see how it plays out.”
Craig Bellamy talks to S4C. “We need freshness for this … very important … one or two changes with that in mind … Nathan Broadhead brings real intensity … a really good footballer … he’s always caught the eye … it will be a tricky game … different shapes.”
Both teams are in good form. Wales are unbeaten in seven under Craig Bellamy, and have won their last two matches handsomely, 4-1 against Iceland and 3-1 against Kazakhstan. North Macedonia are doing even better: they’re on a six-game winning streak, a run which has seen them win promotion to League B of the Nations League before winning their first game of World Cup qualification, Saturday’s 3-0 victory in Liechtenstein.
Tonight’s game in Skopje comes nine days after a nightclub fire in Kocani claimed 59 lives and injured many others. North Macedonia declared a seven-day period of national mourning in the wake of the tragedy, and tonight there will be a minute of silence before the match. Both sets of players will wear black armbands. “I’d like to send my condolences to the families and also the people of North Macedonia,” says Craig Bellamy. “We’ve had our own tragedies as well. We know as a country what they’re going through and I’d like them to know that everyone in Wales is fully behind them.”
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Wales 3-1 Kazakhstan. A reminder of how Wales did last Saturday.
Wales make three changes to their starting XI after the 3-1 home win over Kazakhstan. Chris Mepham replaces Connor Roberts at the back, Jordan James takes a midfield spot from David Brooks, and Nathan Broadhead starts up front instead of Liam Cullen.
Aleksandar Trajkovski, whose late goal did for Wales in this fixture during the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, and who put the finishing touch to this pitch-length move in Liechtenstein last Saturday …
This North Macedonia team goal 😲#WCQ pic.twitter.com/vQ8KAYpu7L
— UEFA EURO (@UEFAEURO) March 24, 2025
… is on the bench.
The teams
North Macedonia: Dimitrievski, Zajkov, Serafimov, Musliu, Alioski, Ilievski, Alimi, Bardhi, Kostadinov, Miovski, Elmas.
Subs: Elezi, Iliev, Trapanosvki, Toshevski, Stankovski, Manev, Trajkovski, Stojchevski, Dimoski, Churlinov, Atanasov, Aleksovski.
Wales: Darlow, Thomas, Mepham, Rodon, Ben Davies, Williams, Johnson, Jordan James, Sheehan, Daniel James, Broadhead.
Subs: Koumas, Moore, Roberts, Matondo, Ward, Lawrence, Allen, Mark Harris, Adam Davies, Cullen, Cabango, Brooks.
Referee: Jerome Brisard (France).
Preamble
The end of this international break heaves into view. It hasn’t been one for the ages, if we’re being honest. But if there’s to be one last chance to leave it with something that will resonate through the years, then thank goodness Craig Bellamy’s entertainers are involved. Can they conjure something exciting in their Group J fixture in North Macedonia? We’ll soon find out and then it’ll be back to our beloved domestic grind. To rework the greatest autobiography title of them all: Let’s Get Through Tuesday. Kick-off is at 7.45pm GMT. It’s on!
