Wales ‘confident against anyone’ in home play-off – hat-trick hero Harry Wilson | OneFootball

Harry Wilson says Wales are confident of beating anyone at home in the World Cup play-offs.

Wales secured home advantage for their play-off semi-final with an historic 7-1 demolition of North Macedonia in Cardiff on Tuesday.

Thursday’s draw in Zurich will see Wales in pot two and hosting either the Republic of Ireland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Kosovo from the group below at Cardiff City Stadium on March 26.

The final – to be played five days later, with the hosts to be decided by a draw – will determine who progresses to next summer’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

“Whenever we play at home, we’re confident against anyone,” said Wilson, who scored Wales’ first hat-trick for over four years after being named captain for the night with Aaron Ramsey and Ben Davies injured and Ethan Ampadu suspended.

“We showed for 20 minutes against Belgium (in October) – a top-10 nation – what we could be like.

“In the semi-final we’ll have to do it for 90 minutes, but whoever we play in that game we will be confident.”

The likelihood is that Wales would meet one of the four top seeds – Italy, Ukraine, Turkey or Denmark – should they progress to the final.

Ukraine were beaten 1-0 in Cardiff in the 2022 World Cup play-off final as a Gareth Bale-inspired Wales ended their 64-year wait to play at the tournament.

Wales had earlier beaten Austria 2-1 in the semi-final after being drawn at home.

Wilson said: “That was a big part of our pre-match talk, to get that home advantage, because it showed in the last World Cup campaign how important it was in those two games.

“That’s massive. The fans really get us through games and were amazing again.

“When we conceded in the first half to make it 2-1, their response to that goal gave us a boost, and Brennan (Johnson) produces an amazing goal to give us that breathing space again. From then onwards we were the dominant team.”

Wilson became the first player to score a Wales hat-trick since Bale in September 2021 and now has 17 international goals.

It puts the Fulham forward eighth on the all-time Wales scoring charts with his manager, Craig Bellamy, the next man in his sights on 19.

“It’s the night I dreamt of,” Wilson said after Wales had scored seven in one game for the first time in 47 years.

“To captain my country for the first time and to get a hat-trick on top was amazing.

“I’m going to try to keep climbing that list. But it’s not about me, it’s about the team.

“If my goals can contribute to us getting to more major tournaments, and winning more big games, then that’s great.”