Joe Rodon gave Wales the perfect start after seven minutes as the Leeds defender rose unchecked to score for the second successive qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium.<\/p>\n
But Belgium were ahead midway through the first half as De Bruyne punished Ethan Ampadu\u2019s handball and Thomas Meunier swept home from a devastating counter-attack.<\/p>\n
De Bruyne dispatched a second penalty after 76 minutes following another \u2013 and more obvious \u2013 handball offence before substitute Nathan Broadhead gave Wales hope.<\/p>\n
But Leandro Trossard instantly restored the two-goal cushion to seal matters.<\/p>\n
Wales now trail Belgium by four points and are seemingly locked in a battle with North Macedonia \u2013 who were held 1-1 at home by Kazakhstan \u2013 for second spot. The play-offs in March surely await Craig Bellamy\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
This was the latest instalment of a familiar fixture with the two nations meeting for the 11th time since 2012.<\/p>\n
Wales had recorded famous victories in Euro 2016 qualifying and in the quarter-final of the tournament itself.<\/p>\n
But Belgium had not tasted defeat in the last five meetings, and De Bruyne\u2019s late winner saw them shade a seven-goal thriller in Brussels four months ago.<\/p>\n
Johnson and Kieffer Moore were eye-catching omissions as Mark Harris and Sorba Thomas returned to the front line following their 3-0 Wembley defeat to England.<\/p>\n
Skipper Ben Davies lined up at left-back to win his 100th cap and become the fourth Welshman to reach three figures after Gareth Bale, Chris Gunter and Wayne Hennessey.<\/p>\n
Wales started at a furious pace and Maxim De Cuyper had just avoided the ignominy of putting through his own net when the hosts scored from their third corner in the opening seven minutes.<\/p>\n
Rodon was left free from Thomas\u2019 kick and headed past Thibaut Courtois with the minimum of fuss.<\/p>\n
Harry Wilson was booked to rule him out of next month\u2019s trip to Liechtenstein, and there was further pain for Wales when Charles De Ketelaere\u2019s 17th-minute shot struck Ampadu on the arm.<\/p>\n
German referee Daniel Siebert was sent to the pitchside monitor by VAR and the fact Ampadu\u2019s arm was close to his body was not enough of a mitigating factor.<\/p>\n
Bellamy\u2019s protest against the decision saw him receive a second yellow card in the campaign, meaning he will spend the Liechtenstein game in the stands.<\/p>\n
De Bruyne sent Karl Darlow the wrong way from spot and Belgium were ahead six minutes later after Jeremy Doku played the ball back into Meunier\u2019s path, his first-time finish beat Darlow high at his near post.<\/p>\n
Wales were shell-shocked and Belgium, utilising Doku\u2019s electric pace on the break, had several chances to extend their lead.<\/p>\n
Arthur Theate stabbed wide, Rodon blocked Trossard\u2019s goalbound effort, De Bruyne and De Cuyper blazed over and Wilson almost sliced into his own net.<\/p>\n
Courtois was called upon to push out Jordan James\u2019 volley close to half-time, but Wales escaped as Doku cut inside to whistle a shot over Darlow\u2019s crossbar.<\/p>\n
Wales sent on Johnson for a rescue act but his first job was to escort the wandering rat off the pitch.<\/p>\n
De Bruyne converted again with comfort after James needlessly handled.<\/p>\n
Broadhead gave Wales hope with a crisp finish, but Trossard rounded off the scoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Rodon gave Wales the perfect start after seven minutes as the Leeds defender rose unchecked to score…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,898,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-78788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-latest-news-ticker","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}