Wales 7-1 North Macedonia: Hosts secure home play-off tie with huge victory in Cardiff | OneFootball

Wales finished as runners up in Group J after beating 7-1 North Macedonia at the Cardiff City Stadium.

A hat-trick from Harry Wilson and goals from David Brooks, Brennan Johnson, Daniel James and Nathan Broadhead saw the Red Dragons secure a second-place finish in their World Cup qualifying campaign.

As it happened

From the start Wales were dominant in attack and had the most possession of the first half which showed by the number of chances they had at goal.

A dangerous attack from Johnson saw the ball find Brooks, whose overhead effort flies over the bar.

The attacking didn’t stop there from the Red Dragons as the hosts earned a penalty after Andre Stojchevski was shown a yellow card for a foul in the penalty area.

Wilson calmly slotted a low ball into the bottom corner to give Wales a 1-0 lead as the home crowd erupted.

A second goal soon followed two minutes after the penalty, as Brooks’ left footed shot from inside the box extended Wales’ lead to 2-0.

But North Macedonia soon responded the other end after a slip from keeper Karl Darlow led to Bojan Miovski to put one behind to bring the score to 2-1.

The hosts soon extended their lead 19 minutes after North Macedonia pulled one back, as a fantastic strike from Johnson outside the area restored Wales’ two-goal advantage.

James scored a fourth in the second half with a superb strike to seal a victory for the home side.

Wilson piled the misery on North Macedonia as sensational free-kick earned a fifth goal for his side.

Despite being 5-1 up the Red Dragons kept up their fantastic attacking football.

Wilson could have scored another before being brought down in the box by Darko Velkovski in bad foul to earn another penalty.

It wasn’t a problem for the captain as he slotted the ball in the bottom left corner to earn a hat-trick and add a sixth to humiliate the visitors.

Broadhead scored a seventh with a header from the centre of the box following a corner before the final whistle.

The result means that Wales have a home semi-final clash in pot two against a third seed in the play-offs.

Potential opponents include the Republic of Ireland, Czechia, Albania and Kosovo.

Wales will find out their opponents at midday on Thursday, November 20th as the draw takes place in Zurich, Switzerland.

The line-ups