Piet Cremers happy as Wales take care of business before North Macedonia clash | OneFootball

Wales avoided slipping on a Liechtenstein banana skin with assistant manager Piet Cremers admitting their sole objective was a World Cup qualifying win to set up a massive showdown against North Macedonia.

Jordan James’ close-range finish after 61 minutes gave Wales a precious 1-0 victory in Vaduz – against opponents ranked 206 in the world – and drew them level on points with second-placed North Macedonia, who they host in their final Group J qualifier on Tuesday.

Wales must win at the Cardiff City Stadium to finish above North Macedonia and claim a home semi-final tie in the play-offs in March.

If they do not, Wales will be placed in the fourth pot and face a top seed – possibly Italy, Poland, Turkey or Ukraine – away in the play-off semi-finals.

“We knew we had to take care of today,” said Cremers, who was standing in for Craig Bellamy with the Wales boss unable to speak to the media because of his one-match touchline ban.

“We did that and now our focus goes to North Macedonia.

“It will be another difficult game in Cardiff but we play at home, we’ve got our fans in numbers and we’ll look to turn it into a positive result.

“This is a type of game where everyone expects you to win 5-0, 6-0, 7-0, but when you come to these places it can be a difficult game.

“We’ve seen that with teams that have played here before, like Belgium who struggled to score goals in the first half.

“It’s a team that’s very well organised, they keep the spaces small, and try to limit your chances.”

Wales were frustrated for over an hour with Nathan Broadhead seeing his first-half effort disallowed after a VAR check for offside in the build-up.

Liechtenstein’s collection of full-time players, office workers and students eventually had their resistance when Daniel James delivered a delicious cross that namesake Jordan dispatched for his first Wales goal.

“We had some good moments to score a second,” said Cremers, who revealed he was prevented from having any contact with Bellamy until after the final whistle.

“When you don’t score that second or third goal it becomes more tricky. The players start to force things that little bit more.

“There were moments in the final third where we lacked that bit of detail to create an opportunity and turn it into a shot on goal.”

Wales were dealt a huge blow by skipper Ethan Ampadu and Jordan James picking up their second yellow cards of the competition.

The pair will both miss the North Macedonia tie through suspension, forcing Bellamy to revamp his central midfield completely.

Cremers said: “It’s never nice to lose players through suspension or an injury.

“But I’ve learned very quickly in this job that there’s nothing you can do about injuries and suspensions.

“You have to deal with it and we’ve got a really good squad. Players who have played before and know the detail.”