Craig Bellamy says Wales produced a “good performance” despite losing 3-1 to Norway in their Nations League Group A4 match at Ullevaal Stadion.
Norway took control through goals from Antonio Nusa, Andreas Schjelderup and Erling Haaland, while David Brooks scored for Wales. Haaland completed the victory with an 88th-minute penalty after Wales had threatened to equalise late on.
The result means Wales have lost five of their past six matches in all competitions, winning only one in that run. They had lost just five of their previous 29 games, recording 12 wins and 12 draws.
Bellamy’s team are guaranteed to finish bottom of Group A4 before their final match against Portugal on Tuesday. The Wales manager, however, felt there were encouraging aspects to the performance.
“It was a good performance. I thought there were huge parts of the game where we played really well,” Bellamy told BBC Match of the Day Wales.
“We wanted to take the game to Norway here, we didn’t want to just sit back.
“I thought we could have been better with our final ball at times. I always felt we were in the game.
“I’d like to have this game again because there was some really good stuff out there at times, but it’s still disappointing because we lost at the end of the day.”
Wales had previously beaten Norway, and Bellamy said his side were prepared to attack rather than defend deep. They were still in contention for a point before Haaland’s late penalty settled the match.
Haaland’s two goals took his international total to 66 in 60 appearances for Norway in all competitions. Since his debut in September 2019, only England captain Harry Kane, with 70, has scored more international goals among European players.
Norway’s victory continued their strong home record in competitive matches. Since the start of 2024, they have won nine of their 10 such games on home soil, losing only once. That is the same number of wins they recorded across 21 competitive home matches between 2019 and 2023, when their record was nine wins, six draws and six defeats.
They have also scored in each of their past 24 competitive matches. Their last blank came in a goalless Nations League draw against Kazakhstan in September 2024.
“This is Nations League A. At B and C level, we were dominating a lot of games for the whole match and won with big numbers, but this level is different,” said Norway midfielder Sander Berge.
“The individual level of every single player is so much higher. Wales showed how good they are when they beat us, and today we had to dig so deep to get the win.”
