| Men’s World Cup Qualifying Play-off Semi-Final: Wales v Austria |
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| Campus: cardiff city stadium Date: Thursday, March 24 Kick off: 19:45 BST |
| Coverage: Live BBC Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, BBC Sport website and app, plus live text online. BBC Two Wales highlights from 23:15 GMT and later on request |
Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey will lead Wales’ World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final challenge against Austria in Cardiff next week.
Wales boss Robert Page hopes the influential duo are free from the injury problems that have cut short their seasons at the club.
But Wales will be without goalkeeper Danny Ward, Tyler Roberts and James Lawrence for the match on Thursday 24 March.
Rabbi Matondo and Tom King are back to help fill those gaps.
Ward is absent due to a knee injury that led to surgery and his Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers said: “He will be out for a number of weeks.”
James Lawrence is also absent while recovering in St Pauli from a thigh injury.
The inclusion of Bale and Ramsey is a boost, but both have had limited playing time this season.
Captain Bale has only made two appearances for Real Madrid since Wales last played in November.
As for Ramsey, since joining Rangers on loan from Juventus in January, only two of his five appearances have been starts.
With Ward injured, goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey will reach 100 caps if he plays against Austria and in the friendly – against an unconfirmed opponent – the following week.
The semi-final winner of Wales and Austria was due to meet the winner of Scotland against Ukraine but, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that match was postponed.
The Scotland-Ukraine match will now be played in June, with the play-off final to follow in the same month.
- Hard to fit into World Cup play-offs – Mooney
- Wales players ‘excited’ to face Austria – Williams
The Austria squad includes Bale’s fellow Real Madrid defender David Alaba and former Stoke City and West Ham United striker Marko Arnautovic, as well as goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann, who was on loan at Wrexham during 2014- fifteen.
Austria boss Franco Foda said: “You could see in the World Cup qualifiers that [Wales] they are very strong, after all they haven’t lost a game at home.
“In general, they concede few goals and are good game changers. We will have a lot of possession, we cannot afford to make mistakes when passing and we have to avoid counter-attacks.
He added: “These kinds of games are often decided in our heads. We have to be convinced of our own qualities and show a good mentality in duels.”
wales team
Goalkeepers: Hennessey, A. Davies, King
Defenders: B Davies, Rodon, Cabango, Ampadu, Mepham, N Williams, Norrington-Davies, Roberts, Gunter, Levitt
Midfielders: Ramsey, Colwill, Morrell, Vaulks, Allen, Wilson, Williams
Forward: Bale, Johnson, Harris, James, Santo Tomas, Matondo
Austrian team
Goalkeepers: Bachmann, Lindner, Pentz
Defenders: Alaba, Dragovic, Hinteregger, Lainer, Lienhart, Posch, Trimmel, Ulmer
Midfielders: Baumgartner, Grillitsch, Grull, Laimer, Lázaro, Ljubicic, Sabitzer, Schaub, Schlager, Seiwalk
Forward: Arnautovic, Gregoritsch, Kalajdzic
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