{"id":497617,"date":"2026-03-27T04:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/497617\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T04:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:11:10","slug":"wales-1-1-bosnia-and-herzegovina-aet-bosnia-win-2-4-on-pens-craig-bellamys-sides-2026-world-cup-dreams-ended-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/497617\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales 1-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina AET (Bosnia win 2-4 on pens): Craig Bellamy’s side’s 2026 World Cup dreams ended | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wales suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Cardiff to end their 2026 World Cup dreams.<\/p>\n

Brennan Johnson and Neco Williams both missed in the shootout as Kerim Alajbegovic’s winning spot-kick saw Bosnia set up a home World Cup play-off final against Italy on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Wales’ play-off semi-final heartbreak means they miss out on qualifying for back-to-back World Cups.<\/p>\n

\n World Cup play-off finals – Europe\n <\/p>\n

Bosnia & Herzegovina vs Italy
\n Sweden vs Poland
\n Kosovo vs Turkey
\n Czech Republic vs Denmark<\/p>\n

Edin Dzeko’s late header forced extra time after Dan James had stunningly volleyed Wales ahead early in the second half.<\/p>\n

Craig Bellamy’s side will return to Cardiff on Tuesday to face Northern Ireland, who were defeated by Italy in their play-off semi-final, in a friendly.<\/p>\n

\"Wales'<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Wales will not be going to the 2026 World Cup<\/p>\n

Wales will feel they should be hosting Italy on Tuesday for a spot at the World Cup, having been four minutes from booking a play-off final against the four-time winners.<\/p>\n

Harry Wilson looked like breaking the deadlock at the Cardiff City Stadium as he struck the post and forced a save from a free-kick with Wales’ only shot on target of the first half against a physical Bosnia side.<\/p>\n

\"Wales'<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Wales’ Harry Wilson shows his disappointment<\/p>\n

But it was James who delivered the breakthrough six minutes into the second half with a superb volleyed strike from around 25 yards.<\/p>\n

The Leeds winger latched onto a loose ball and caught Bosnia goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj out with a powerful shot to give Wales the lead.<\/p>\n

An end-to-end encounter then ensued as James hit the bar with a deflected shot, before Wales goalkeeper Karl Darlow made a fabulous stop to somehow claw out Ermedin Demirovic’s header at his near post.<\/p>\n

But Darlow could not keep out Dzeko’s header as the 40-year-old Bosnia captain rose highest at a corner to equalise in the 86th minute for his 73rd national team goal.<\/p>\n

\"Bosnia<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Edin Dzeko scored their equaliser<\/p>\n

The ex-Manchester City striker was then involved in a touchline clash with Bellamy in extra time, which saw Dzeko booked.<\/p>\n

Neither side could find a winner in extra time, with Wilson missing the best chance, taking the tie to penalties, where Bosnia prevailed in a cruel repeat of Wales’ Euro 2024 play-off exit.<\/p>\n

James: Loss ‘really tough to take’ <\/p>\n

\"Wales'<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Wales’ Daniel James celebrates scoring their first goal<\/p>\n

Wales’ Dan James on the defeat:<\/p>\n

“Really tough to take. I think we played incredibly tonight. It was unfortunate for them to score late, and then I thought after extra time that we were the only team that was going to go on to win it.<\/p>\n

“It was a credit to ourselves, we’ve come so far, and it just wasn’t meant to be tonight.<\/p>\n

“I think we were unfortunate not to get a second. We had chances, I hit the bar, and it just didn’t go in, giving them that little bit of chance and confidence to try and get a goal and equalise, and that’s what they did.<\/p>\n

“Credit to us for going to extra time and dominating the game, we created lots of chances, but it goes to penalties, and that’s how it is.”<\/p>\n

‘This will hurt’ <\/p>\n

\"Wales'<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Williams saw his spot-kick saved<\/p>\n

Sky Sports News Geraint Hughes at the Cardiff City Stadium:<\/p>\n

“Oh my word, it’s happened again to Wales.<\/p>\n

“Exactly two years ago to the very day, they lost a shootout against Poland to miss out on qualifying for Euro 2024. The penalty curse has struck twice.<\/p>\n

“What a contrast at full-time, with the Bosnian players in one corner of the stadium celebrating widely while every Wales player and member of the backroom staff are in a huddle with Craig Bellamy in the middle of it. He’s pacing around and talking to them, clearly with passion.<\/p>\n

“This will hurt.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Cardiff to end their 2026 World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-497617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}