By Gareth James
Wales manager Craig Bellamy insists his team can build further on his first camp in charge last month when two positive performances created plenty of excitement among supporters to carry with them into Friday night’s match in Iceland.
Euro 2024 quarter-finalists Turkey were somewhat fortunate to leave Cardiff with a goalless draw before Montenegro were beaten 2-1 in Niksic in Bellamy’s opening two matches in charge in the Nations League.
Bellamy said: “I’d be worried if there wasn’t expectations. I certainly don’t believe in ever trying to play them down.
“I don’t think that would be fair to people who come to watch. We have a level of patience but also understanding within the group.
“We have to be sensible as well but for anyone, whether it’s the public or whatever, if they’re excited that’s exactly where we want them to be.
“I knew this group was good. I was excited after the first camp and, this camp, it’s gone up again. This is a good group of players we have at the moment.”
Wales manager Craig Bellamy says his players have been affected by the death of George Baldock with some receiving support ahead of their Nations League clash with Iceland https://t.co/NBiZrYl1Hc
— Nation.Cymru (@NationCymru) October 10, 2024
Wales arrived in Reykjavik on Thursday evening after temperatures had hovered around zero degrees Celsius in the Icelandic capital all day.
A protective sheet was placed on the Laugardalsvollur pitch with even lower temperatures forecast on Friday.
Bellamy, who is without injured trio Aaron Ramsey, Daniel James and Ethan Ampadu, said: “We’ll see on Friday if this camp is able to push us up again
“The feeling towards training this week has been really positive, so we’ve definitely been able to build on training, spend more time with each other.”
Bellamy’s captain Ben Davies has praised in-form Brennan Johnson for letting his “football do the talking” after his Wales and Tottenham teammate’s extraordinary goalscoring run since unplugging from social media.
Johnson quit Instagram after being hit with abuse following Spurs’s defeat to Arsenal in September but has since gone on a run of scoring in each of his past six Tottenham matches.
“Maybe the outside world was on his case a little bit but as teammates we certainly weren’t,” said Davies, who will captain Wales in Iceland on Friday in the absence of the injured Aaron Ramsey.
“It shows what a strong character he is. It is difficult to know what someone is going through at a particular time and if you’re receiving criticism it’s not a nice place to be, but Brennan has come out, let his football do the talking.
“The outside noise isn’t something you can control but you can control what you do on the pitch and he seems to be doing that pretty well now.
“He is still a young player but the hardest thing in football is to score goals. If he can keep doing that regularly, who knows where he can go?
“As a teammate, I’m delighted to see him scoring as regularly as he is and doing as well as he is, but we can see how quickly opinions can shift as well.
“Even when he was going through the so-called tough patch, it was a couple of games but he was still getting the chances, he was still in the right areas and we would be having more issues if he wasn’t doing that.”
Wales are ready to embrace greater expectations as they look to maintain Craig Bellamy’s unbeaten start as head coach in Friday’s Nations League match in Iceland ⚽#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/lYAflLZmcO
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) October 10, 2024
Johnson is central to Bellamy’s plans as Wales manager and is primed to start in Reykjavík.
The Wales manager said he had not noticed any difference in Johnson on this camp compared with the last, when the 23-year-old featured in September’s draw against Turkey and victory over Montenegro.
“He is a very humble kid, he’s just great to be around,” Bellamy said. “The group love him. He clearly enjoys being here – he always has. He’s just the same as he was on the first camp. He’s great to be with.”
Bellamy stressed he has been keen to care for his squad and staff after the shock death of George Baldock, a former Sheffield United clubmate of the recalled Wales defender Rhys Norrington-Davies, winger David Brooks and third-choice goalkeeper Adam Davies.
Baldock, who joined Panathinaikos in May and played against Olympiakos last Sunday, was found dead at the bottom of his apartment’s swimming pool in southern Athens on Wednesday.
"He's in a rich vein of form, the goals for Wales are yet to come but it's a matter of time" 🗣️
Geraint Hughes discusses Wales forward Brennan Johnson, who has scored in his last six games for Tottenham 🏴 pic.twitter.com/BBC9JnJfUO
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) October 9, 2024
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