Nations League round-up: Bellamy leads Wales to promotion, Szoboszlai scores last-minute panenka
GOING UP: Wales manager Craig Bellamy greets Joe Allen following their win over Iceland. Pic: David Davies/PA Wire.
Wales won Nations League promotion as Liam Cullen's first two international goals helped them to a 4-1 victory over Iceland on Tuesday.
Craig Bellamy's side completed an unbeaten six-game campaign and overhauled Turkey - 3-1 losers in Montenegro - at the top of the group to secure elevation to League A.
That almost certainly handed Wales a World Cup play-off place to fall back on should they not automatically qualify for the 2026 tournament.
Promotion was achieved the hard way following Andri Gudjohnsen's early strike, and for 25 minutes Wales were staring at a relegation play-off against a League C runner-up.
Swansea striker Cullen, winning his seventh cap, turned the tide with a first-half double before Brennan Johnson and Harry Wilson crowned victory with wonderful strikes.
It was Wilson's fourth goal in this Nations League campaign and his 12th in total for Wales.
Elswhere Bosnia fought back to claim only their second point of their campaign as they held a second-string Netherlands side to a 1-1 draw in a match with nothing riding on the outcome.
Ermedin Demirovic equalised in the 67th minute, as Bosnia chased a positive result in an effort to give veteran striker Edin Dzeko a fitting send-off in his final international but the draw stretched their 13-month winless streak to 12 games.
𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗣 𝗔𝟯 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗦
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 19, 2024
🇧🇦 1-1 🇳🇱
🇭🇺 1-1 🇩🇪#NationsLeague pic.twitter.com/k1qpgU6qNa
Brian Brobbey had given the much-changed Dutch outfit a 24th-minute lead at the Bilino Polje Stadium after coach Ronald Koeman fielded an entirely fresh lineup for their last fixture in Group A3.
The Netherlands had already secured second place in the group, and a spot in the quarter-finals in March, with a 4-0 win over Hungary on Saturday while Bosnia’s relegation from the top tier of the Nations League was confirmed after losing 7-0 to Germany at the same time.
Already-qualified Germany conceded a stoppage-time equaliser and had to settle for a 1-1 draw against hosts Hungary.
Hungary's Dominik Szoboszlai netted a panenka penalty with the last kick of the game to cancel out Felix Nmecha's 76th minute goal. They had already booked a place in the League A/B playoffs.
Finally Arsenal's Oleksandr Zinchenko scored the opener in Ukraine's 2-1 victory away to Albania while Viktor Gyökeres netted four in Sweden's 6-0 thrashing at home to Azerbaijan with Newcastle United's Alexander Isak missing a penalty and Tottenham Hotspurs' Dejan Kulusevski also finding the target twice.
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