Craig Bellamy caught up with our reporter Alexandra Richards just before kick-off.

Big fan of the Kazakhstan national anthem. Jaunty.

Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau was belted, as ever.

We are ready. Let World Cup qualifying commence.

Referee DonatasRumsas from Lithuania gets us under way in Cardiff under the lights.

• Kazakhstan have won three of their past four meetings with the British home nations, beating Scotland in March 2019 and winning home and away against Northern Ireland in June and September 2023.
• Wales have lost just two of their past 16 matches in all competitions (seven wins, eight draws), a 4-0 defeat away at Slovakia in a friendly in June 2024 and a penalty shootout loss to Poland in their Euro 2024 play-off final three months earlier.
• Kazakhstan have lost seven of their past eight competitive games, including the past five in a row. They last had a longer losing run between November 2016 and October 2017 (six).
• Wales have lost just two of their past 22 World Cup qualifiers (11 wins, nine draws), though one of those defeats was in their first game of the last qualifying campaign against Belgium in March 2021.
• Since beating the Faroe Islands in September 2013, Kazakhstan have won none of their past 21 World Cup qualifiers (seven draws, 14 defeats). Among European nations, only San Marino (76) and Liechtenstein (41) are on longer winless runs currently.
• The now-retired Gareth Bale has scored each of Wales’ past three World Cup qualifying goals and this will be the first time Wales’ first match of a World Cup qualifying campaign will not feature Bale since September 2004 against Azerbaijan, a match that featured manager Craig Bellamy in the Wales starting XI.

Wales captain Ben Davies says World Cup failure in Qatar in 2022 is ample motivation to lead his side to the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Head coach Craig Bellamy is urging Wales to embrace expectations as they begin their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign at home to lowly Kazakhstan on Saturday.

Bellamy is unbeaten in his six matches to date, leading Wales to promotion to the Nations League’s top tier last year.

Now the former captain has set his team the target of not only qualifying for a second successive World Cup for the first time, but making a more positive impact when they get there, having exited at the group stage in Qatar in 2022.

“I can just sit back and let them [players] do it! It’s so valuable. Their calmness with it as well, they’ve been there [to a World Cup],” said Bellamy.

“But also the crowd, they’ve been there as well. It’s so important because they’ve got to experience major tournaments. When we say ‘Together Stronger’, it’s everyone.

“I expect expectations, I welcome them. I’d be concerned if we didn’t have them. I’ve never tried to play them down but, at the same time, we have to play our game, no matter what goes on.”

Wales have never faced Kazakhstan, who are 110th in Fifa’s standings, in men’s football since they entered European qualifying in 2002.

Kazakhstan have never qualified for a major tournament, but have enjoyed an upturn in results in recent years. They finished just four points off an automatic qualifying spot for Euro 2024, including notable wins over Denmark, Finland and a double over Northern Ireland, before losing to Greece in the play-offs.

They were relegated from Nations League B in a tough group with Norway, Austria and Slovenia, although they did hold Erling Haaland’s side to a goalless draw in Almaty. Their most recent competitive win was against San Marino in a European Championship qualifier in 2023.

Former Kazakhstan midfielder Ali Aliyev was appointed interim manager in January and has overseen three friendlies so far, drawing against Uzbek club side Lokomotiv Tashkent and losing to North Korea last month before beating Curacao on Wednesday.

The 2-0 victory over Curacao was played in Belek, Turkey, and the Kazakhstan squad flew from there to Cardiff, arriving on Thursday night.

Nearly the entire squad is fasting at the moment as players observe Ramadan, which prohibits Muslims from eating and drinking between dawn and sunset for one month.

“Physiologically it’s challenging, we just have one or two players who are not Muslims,” said Aliyev. “We can’t help it so we have had to adjust certain training for people based on age, physical condition and how much they have been playing for their club.

“But I think Ramadan and fasting is motivating for any player because it enhances the internal qualities and morale of the players.

“I’m happy the guys are united by this idea. Our country has this tradition of fasting during Ramadan and we are united by it.

“We beat Denmark in Ramadan two years ago and I hope the whole energy around this month will help us.”

A wall of noise at the Cardiff City Stadium.

A crackling Saturday night atmosphere.

You know the drill.

Lights. Camera. Zombie Nation.

No idea if they discussed sourdough bread (ask your kids about that meme) but our reporter Alexandra Richards caught up with Connor Roberts earlier.

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales at Cardiff City Stadium

Fair play to the Kazakhstan fans who’ve made the roughly 7,000-mile round trip for this game.

It’s one of the smallest away sections I’ve seen in this stadium, estimated at around 50 supporters according to one Football Association of Wales official I spoke to.

Craig Bellamy was all smiles when Wales arrived.

The likes of Ben Davies and Joe Rodon have long since departed, but their pictures continue to adorn the walls at Swansea City’s academy.

The same is true of Connor Roberts, Daniel James and Josh Sheehan, the three other Swansea old boys in the Wales squad for World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan on Saturday and North Macedonia next week.

There are photographs too of the four other ex-academy players – Joe Allen, Ollie Cooper, Liam Cullen and Ben Cabango – who are away with Wales but remain part of Swansea’s senior side.

The nine Swansea products made up exactly a third of the Wales party named by Craig Bellamy earlier this month, which is some achievement for the club’s youth set-up.

“It’s exceptional, it really is, and credit goes to everybody involved in the processes along the way,” says Alan Sheehan, Swansea’s caretaker boss.

Every graduate who makes it to senior international level becomes a poster boy at Swansea’s academy, which is a few hundred yards from the club’s stadium in Landore.

The hope is that those following in their footsteps in youth football will be inspired to emulate their achievements on the senior stage.

“I think it’s very important to have the players coming through and more importantly for the players to feel that if they hit the level, the door is open for them,” Sheehan adds.

The belief at Swansea is that there are more players ready to push through, initially into their first team then, a little further down the line, the national side.

Read more:Swansea’s pride over Wales contingent – and hope for more

Eight games from winning promotion to the Premier League. Eight fixtures standing in-between Wales and the 2026 World Cup.

Leeds United’s Dan James knows he could about to have the year of his life.

Fortunately for club and country, he is having the season of his life.

Once widely criticised for lacking end product, he is now on track for a career-best tally of goals and assists in a single campaign.

“Outstanding,” Daniel Farke has said of someone who has become integral to Championship leaders Leeds’ bid to return to the top-flight, a player happy to carry the weighty Elland Road expectations of success.

Craig Bellamy will be hoping for just as much attacking influence on the international stage as Wales plot their path to north America.

And James is not shying away from it.

“I’m not a young player anymore,” he says. “I want to try and be that main man.”

But, even for a player of electrifying pace, getting to that stage has taken some time.

Read more:How James became the ‘main man’ for Leeds and Wales

Wales and Manchester United legend Mark Hughes says Craig Bellamy’s time as an outspoken player showed he had what was needed to become a managerial hit.

Bellamy, 45, is preparing to lead Wales into 2026 World Cup qualifying having enjoyed an unbeaten start to his time in charge of the national side.

Having replaced Rob Page last summer, the 78-cap former striker has impressed in the Wales head coach role – and hopes he has proven he is not the “lunatic” he was sometimes perceived as during his playing days.

Bellamy the player was often seen as a controversial figure during a combustible career, someone who rarely shied away from offering forthright opinions.

That created doubts for some over his potential to move into the dugout – but not for Hughes.

“He always had a view in the dressing room, as you could imagine,” said Hughes, who managed Bellamy at Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City as well as with Wales.

“But it was always good insight – and when you were taking on board what he was saying, you realised he knew the game and what may have been going wrong in games.

“You knew then he could manage himself – and not a lot of players can do that. If you’re able to do that, then it helps when you become a manager on the touchline.”

Read more:Bellamy was made to be a manager – Hughes

World Cup qualifying eh? How does it work? Who plays who? When are the finals?

We’ve got you covered.

Read more:World Cup qualifying – all you need to know

Tom Lawrence feared his Wales career was over after falling out with former manager Rob Page – but is now savouring his recall under Craig Bellamy.

Lawrence, 31, was frozen out for four years before current head coach Bellamy named him in the squad for Wales’ upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and North Macedonia.

This is the first time the Rangers attacking midfielder has been involved since winning the most recent of his 23 caps in March 2021.

Asked why he had not featured, Lawrence said: “The manager [Page], if I’m being blatantly honest. He had his own way of doing things and I wasn’t to be a part of that – for what reason, you’d have to ask him. I asked that same question, he couldn’t give me it.

“I’m a pretty simple guy. When someone’s not honest with me, then I don’t have all the respect in the world for them. There were questions I asked that weren’t answered and that was the way it went.

“I don’t think I need to go into it completely. Let’s just say we didn’t see eye to eye in certain things. Regret on my behalf? Absolutely not. I did everything I could while I was here, while he was the manager.”

Read more:Lawrence feared Wales career was over after Page fallout

Craig Bellamy’s eyes widen with excitement when he is asked about his favourite World Cup memories.

He launches into an impassioned monologue charting everything from Maradona’s 1986 heroics to Roberto Baggio’s emergence four years later and the tactical pragmatism of Brazil in 1994.

That tournament in the United States lit a fire in Bellamy the teenager, convincing him that he wanted to become a professional footballer.

He realised that ambition with a stellar playing career that included spells at Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle United – but he never represented his country at a major tournament.

Next year, the World Cup returns to the United States, co-hosts along with Canada and Mexico, as Wales aim to qualify for a second time in succession.

So as Wales prepare for their opening qualifier at home to Kazakhstan on Saturday, would taking his country to a major tournament as head coach make up for Bellamy’s inability to do so as a player?

“No, come on! That’s going to hurt me forever,” he says with a laugh that suggests he is not entirely joking.

“I want the players to qualify. Do I want to coach at a World Cup? Yeah, but is it the most important? I’m OK, trust me.

“Do I want the money that can come back to help us invest, to help us keep improving this game of ours? That’s all I get motivated for. I need that money so we’ve got more pitches, we build more infrastructure.

“I’m going to come and go… but I want a legacy. I want to be able to say, ‘in his period he did this’. The more I do, I’m always thinking this is serious, this is full-time. This is not a part-time role. People in Wales deserve that.”

Read more: ‘That’ll hurt forever’ – World Cup pain drives Bellamy

Ian Hunt
Presenter on BBC Radio Wales

When it comes to the disappointment of Wales’ 2022 World Cupcampaign, Ben Davies probably captured the feelings of fans perfectly.

“The best moment of Qatar for us was probably just theUkraine (play-off) game in getting there,” said the Wales captain.

That says something, doesn’t it? The best thing about Qatarwas Cardiff!

Tonight, then, the World Cup healing process begins forDavies and his team, plus the thousands of Red Wall members left completelyunderwhelmed by Wales’ failure to show their true colours on football’s biggeststage.

The visit of Kazakhstan is the first of eight steps to asummer in the States – and the chance to actually show the world what Wales isall about this time.

They say three things in life are certain: death, taxes anda Wales defence containing Ben Davies as its beating heart. Tonight marks thestart of Davies’ 10th campaign as a senior Wales international – hisfourth World Cup journey in the red of his country, and one in which he shouldjoin the 100-cap club if form and fitness allow.

You can hear the thoughts of the evergreen Tottenham Hotspurman as part of our pre-match build up on BBC Radio Wales, also live on BBCSounds from 19:15.

We’ll also hear from Craig Bellamy and recent 50thcap winner Joe Rodon.

Expert analysis comes from former Wales strikers Helen Wardand Nathan Blake, who was in Qatar himself to witness every minute of Wales’dispiriting 2022 campaign and what turned out to be a sad end to the brilliantGareth Bale era.

New heroes needed this time as Wales bid to go from Cardiffto Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Wales hope Wayne Hennessey will become a coach to their up-and-coming goalkeepers in the summer.

The 38-year-old is wanted by national under-21s boss Matty Jones, who believes the Nottingham Forest stopper would be ideal for the role.

Jones says Boaz Myhill’s move into a coaching role at West Bromwich Albion has given him the opportunity to approach Hennessey for Wales age-grade duties.

“I’ve already reached out to Wayne,” said Jones, who has named a host of new faces for March friendlies against Andorra and Sweden in Valencia.

“There was a change in our staffing group with Boaz (Myhill) as Tony Mowbray came in at West Brom and wanted him to be part of the senior team there.

“We’ve asked Wayne whether he would be interested and we’ll see whether that’s too early or not.

“But the experience he’s got is absolutely frightening in what he could offer our young keepers within the system.

“I would love to tap into Wayne and bring him in like I’ve done with Gareth (Bale) and Aaron (Ramsey).

“These players know how to make it at the top level of football and we’ve got to share that learning.”