Bosnia’s Dzeko poses big World Cup threat – Bellamy

Wales head coach Craig Bellamy will warn his players to keep Bosnia-Herzogovina striker Edin Dzeko at arm’s length when they meet in this month’s World Cup play-off.

Dzeko is his country’s all-time leading goal-scorer with 72 goals from a Bosnia-record 146 caps.

The former Manchester City and Roma forward – currently with Bundesliga 2 side Schalke – turns 40 just nine days before the semi-final on Thursday, 26 March, but the Wales boss says the veteran remains a huge threat.

“Always,” Bellamy agreed.

“He was never that speed player but his link-up play and game intelligence is always going to be high.

“He’s still playing at a good level and he’s definitely a dangerous player.”

The winner of the tie at Cardiff City Stadium on 26 March faces either Italy or Northern Ireland at home five days later for a place at this summer’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

“The idea for us would be to keep Bosnia away from our box because that’s when he comes into his own,” added 46-year-old Bellamy, who played his final game for Manchester City nine months before Dzeko made his debut at the Etihad Stadium.

“The more time he’s outside the box the benefit it would be for us, so we have to keep him as high away from our goal as possible.”

Wales are aiming to qualify for back-to-back World Cup tournaments for the first time having previously played in the 1958 and 2022 finals.

They finished runners-up to automatic qualifiers Belgium in Group J – sealing home advantage for their play-off semi-final with a 7-1 victory over North Macedonia.

Bosnia-Herzogovina finished second to Austria in a group that also included Romania, Cyprus and San Marino, with Dzeko scoring five of 17 goals scored in their eight matches.

“Watching Bosnia has been a decent watch so far,” said Bellamy.

“It’s going to be a tough game. Physically they are very good, well-organised [and] good in both boxes. They don’t need too many chances to score.”

Bellamy names his squad for the game on Tuesday, 17 March, boosted by the return to fitness of Premier League players Harry Wilson and Daniel James.

His opposite number, Sergej Barbarez, has few players from Europe’s top leagues to call on as Bosnia look to reach a World Cup for only the second time since they became an independent football nation, following the separation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992.

“They always produced players for Yugoslavia before the break-up but a lot of their players are born elsewhere now, like Sweden or Germany,” added Bellamy.

“So their education in football is through top-tier countries and then they go back to Bosnia to represent the country. Their quality and football IQ is very high.”

The play-off winners will face co-hosts Canada in Toronto on 12 June, Switzerland in Los Angeles on 18 June and Qatar in Seattle on 24 June.

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