Wales lose to Norway but Craig Bellamy is optimistic about the future

Wales head coach Craig Bellamy believes his side produced a "good performance" in their UEFA Nations League defeat by Norway.

Norway won 3-1 at the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo on Saturday thanks to goals from Antonio Nusa, Andreas Schjelderup and Erling Haaland. David Brooks scored Wales' only goal.

Haaland has now scored 66 goals in 60 appearances for Norway. Since his international debut in September 2019, Harry Kane (70) is the only European player to have scored more international goals than Haaland.

Wales have lost five of their last six matches in all competitions, winning just one. They had suffered the same number of defeats in their previous 29 matches, winning 12 and drawing 12.

Bellamy's side, who play Portugal at home on Tuesday, are also now certain to finish bottom of Nations League Group A4.

Despite all that, Bellamy saw plenty of positives in the display of his side, who had cut the deficit to one before Haaland's late penalty.

"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."

Norway have won nine of their 10 competitive home matches since the start of 2024, losing one. They had recorded the same number of wins in their 21 home matches between 2019 and 2023, drawing six and losing six.

Norway have also scored in every one of their last 24 competitive matches, a run that began after their goalless draw with Kazakhstan in the Nations League in September 2024.

"It's a massive relief. We knew it was going to be a tough game," said Norway midfielder Sander Berge.

"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. 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."