All I care about is winning – Craig Bellamy not interested in Nations League group permutations

Craig Bellamy is ignoring the various Nations League permutations facing Wales, declaring his solitary focus is on beating Iceland in their final group fixture on Tuesday in Cardiff.

Wales can still secure automatic promotion to League A by beating Iceland if leaders Turkey lose to bottom-placed Montenegro.

A Turkey draw would leave Wales needing to beat Iceland by a four-goal margin to win the group on goal difference.

Promotion play-off

Wales would face a promotion play-off against a third-placed team in League A in March should they finish as runners-up.

Losing to Iceland would drop them to third spot and a relegation play-off with a League C runner-up.

“I don’t know about the group,” Wales boss Bellamy said at his pre-match press conference.

“All I care about is winning this game. That’s the honest truth. What will be will be. Win the games, no matter who it is. That’s surely football.

“How can you set up to give you the best opportunity of winning? That’s home or away. Whatever happens elsewhere happens.

“There’s only three outcomes that’s going to happen, but how can we put ourselves in the best position to win the game. That is it.”

Wales remain two points behind Turkey after holding the Euro 2024 quarter-finalists to a goalless draw in Kayseri on Saturday.

Determination

Bellamy praised his players’ “magnificent determination” after that gutsy performance and stressed his desire to make Wales a “top football nation”.

“I want us to to be able to go to these top teams and take the game to the opposition,” said Bellamy, whose side drew 2-2 in Iceland last month after establishing a two-goal interval lead.

“We knew that game wasn’t over at half-time. We had a certain amount of control in this game, but it wasn’t dominant enough to say this team is not going to come back.

“Knowing the profile of players they have, knowing their manager (the veteran former Denmark boss Age Hareide), and their history – especially over the last 10 or 15 years – this team is never out of a game.

“They’ve been on a similar journey to where we’ve been, qualifying, just missing out and getting to the play-offs, so they have big experience.

“They are producing elite players and that makes them dangerous. There is going to be a lot of difficulties in the game and it’s about how we can win.”

Central defender Joe Rodon is set to win his 50th cap and will show the scars of battle after being in the wars in Kayseri.

Clash of heads

Rodon was involved in a nasty clash of heads with team-mate Mark Harris and sustained a couple of cuts just above his eyes.

But the 27-year-old continued with his head bandaged to produce a player-of-the-match performance.

“He’s just been so good for us,” said Bellamy, who revealed that Burnley tried to sign Rodon from Tottenham when he was Vincent Kompany’s assistant at Turf Moor.

“His box defending when you’re deep in defending in the box – headers, blocked shots – he’s so good at it. That’s difficult. Trust me.

“There’s a lot of defenders that are not as good at that as him. When you look at him with the ball, he’s brilliant.

“The way we play enhances him even more. He loves defending.

“Obviously in the air he’s exceptional, but he’s good on the ball. Very, very quick. That’s a good defender.”