CARDIFF — Wales beat Norway 2-1 in Cardiff to secure their first win in seven games and their first ever victory in Nations League A, with Neco Williams and Dan James overturning Oscar Bobb's 11th-minute opener while keeping Erling Haaland scoreless. The result was only Wales' second competitive win over a higher-ranked side since reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2016 and their first over a top-20 nation since beating Croatia in Cardiff in October 2023 under Rob Page, lifting the mood for Craig Bellamy, who has now won nine of his 23 games since replacing Rob Page in July 2024.
Bellamy calmly shook hands with Norway head coach Stale Solbakken and his staff at full time, but the significance was clear after a testing stretch that included March's World Cup exit on penalties to Bosnia-Herzegovina, June's dalliance with Burnley and a Nations League start soured by defeat in Denmark. He had accepted scrutiny before kickoff, saying "We need to improve; I need to improve," and later told S4C of the crowd response after Bobb's early goal in Wales' first home game since the Burnley links: "If they wanted to turn, that was their chance," "But they didn't, they drove players on."
The tension was evident hours before kickoff at the Canopi venue in the shadow of the Principality Stadium, where Wales hope to kick off a home European Championship in less than two years. Ryan March, fan and editor of Alternative Wales, the fanzine that organised the pre-match meet, said: "I think people were down on him after Bosnia, the way the game panned out and seeing mistakes we made on the night we'd made earlier in the campaign," adding "He didn't really come out and say he'd made an error, and then when the Burnley thing happened, perhaps people thought it might be good for a change and we could move on. When it didn't, I expected a reaction – and we haven't had it." March added: "Are we a better side than we were at the end of his first year in charge? I don't think we are," "We have less of a style, less of an identity, and we've not been better than the sum of our parts, which the best Welsh sides always tend to be."
Context was acknowledged, with Wales navigating a four-game window without first-choice goalkeeper Karl Darlow, centre-back Joe Rodon and attacker Harry Wilson, at times turning to League One options against a Norway side ranked 19th in the world and boasting hundred-million pound talents. Bellamy said an "identity meeting" with players aimed to re-establish the tempo and aggression of his unbeaten opening nine games, and the response showed as Wales moved the ball well, contained Haaland and closed the game out with resilience. The performance more than the result appeared to reset the relationship with the Red Wall on a clear night in Cardiff, offering a possible turning point after Bellamy said criticism had hurt following the 2-1 win.