Wales captain Davies hails ´Mr Calm´ Bellamy

Wales captain Ben Davies hailed the composure of head coach Craig Bellamy during Saturday’s 3-1 win over Kazakhstan at Cardiff City Stadium.

Dan James opened the scoring for Wales in the ninth minute, though Askhat Tagybergen equalised with a penalty that just about crept in.

Wales responded well in the second half, though, with Davies, who supplied the assist for James’ opener, and Rabbi Matondo also getting on the scoresheet.

And Davies said coach Bellamy, who was renowned for his feisty character during his playing days, deserved plenty of credit for his approach at half-time.

“The players were the ones that were the most frustrated at half-time,” Davies told BBC Sport.

“[Bellamy] came in Mr. Calm, he came in with a plan, was clear in the messaging he gave us and what he expected in the second half, he simply asked for more energy and keep doing what we’re doing.”

It was a sentiment echoed by James, who said: “He [Bellamy] told us at half-time to keep digging in.

“There were moments in the first half where we didn’t control the game as much as we wanted to, but in the second half we controlled it much more.”

FT | 3-1

A winning start to our @FIFAWorldCup qualifying campaign

https://t.co/3RqUX2u87x pic.twitter.com/eInCzWMHH1

— Wales (@Cymru) March 22, 2025

Wales managed just four shots before the break, accumulating just 0.27 expected goals. After the interval, those figures shot up to eight and 1.91 respectively.

Davies nodded in Sorba Thomas’ corner in the 47th minute, a set-piece tactic that James highlighted as a special focus.

“Second half we came out and scored a great set-piece, in international football set-pieces are really important and it’s something we’ve been practicing,” the Leeds United forward said.

Davies was quick to praise Kazakhstan for their efforts as well. The Tottenham defender added: “We’ve all been in games like that where you go into it as favourites, you have a lot of expectations to walk all over a team, but you know it’s never the case. They’re a proud nation that’s out on the pitch trying to win a game just like us.

“They made it really difficult for us, they were compact. You could see in the first half we forced a lot of balls when we didn’t really need to.”