The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the twenty first FIFA World Cup and was held in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018. It was the second FIFA World Cup to be hosted by Brazil. The tournament was won by France, claiming their second title, beating Croatia 4-2 in the final at Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow.
- 1. Host selection
- 2. Qualifying
- 3. Wales and the 2018 World Cup
- 4. Wales players used during qualifying
Five bids were received by FIFA host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Mexico withdrew and Indonesia's bid was rejected by FIFA leaving England, Russia and the joint bids of Netherlands/Belgium and Portugal/Spain.
At the FIFA Executive Committee meeting in Zürich on 2 December 2010, England's bid was eliminated in the first round of voting after receiving just two votes. In the second round, Russia's bid received the required number of votes winning 13 to Portugal/Spain's seven votes and Netherlands/Belgium's two votes.
For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, all of FIFA's 2091 eligible nations applied to enter the qualifying process.
Hosts, Russia, qualified automatically whilst the remaining 31 places, were allocated with 13 to Europe (UEFA), four to South America (CONMEBOL), three to the North and Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF), four to Africa (CAF) and four to Asia (AFC) whilst one qualifier from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) would face one team from the CONMEBOL qualifiers in an intercontinental play off and one qualifier from CONCACAF would face a qualifier from AFC for the final two places.
Russia qualified as hosts and the remaining 52 teams entered the European qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The teams were divided into nine groups; seven groups of six teams and two group of five teams. The group winners would qualify whilst the eight best runners-up would advance to the UEFA play-offs.
Following the draw, and ahead of the qualifying tournament, Gibraltar and Kosovo were admitted as FIFA members and were placed into the two five team groups meaning all nine groups would have six teams.
Wales were placed in Pot 1 as top seeds, and were drawn in Group 4 alongside Austria, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Moldova and Georgia.
Uefa qualifying Group D
| no. | date | score | scorers (wales) | venue | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05/09/2016 | Georgia 1-2 Austria | Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi | WCQ | ||
| 05/09/2016 | Serbia 2-2 Republic of Ireland | Stadion Rajko Mitić, Belgrade | WCQ | ||
| 631 | 05/09/2016 | Wales 4-0 Moldova | Vokes, Allen, Bale (2) | Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff | WCQ |
| 632 | 06/10/2016 | Austria 2-2 Wales | Allen, o.g. | Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna | WCQ |
| 06/10/2016 | Moldova 0-3 Serbia | Zimbru Stadium, Chişinău | WCQ | ||
| 06/10/2016 | Republic of Ireland 0-1 Georgia | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | WCQ | ||
| 633 | 09/10/2016 | Wales 1-1 Georgia | Bale | Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff | WCQ |
| 09/10/2016 | Moldova 1-3 Republic of Ireland | Zimbru Stadium, Chişinău | WCQ | ||
| 09/10/2016 | Serbia 3-2 Austria | Stadion Rajko Mitić, Belgrade | WCQ | ||
| 12/11/2016 | Austria 0-1 Republic of Ireland | Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna | WCQ | ||
| 12/11/2016 | Georgia 1-1 Moldova | Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi | WCQ | ||
| 634 | 12/11/2016 | Wales 1-1 Serbia | Bale | Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff | WCQ |
| 24/03/2017 | Georgia 1-3 Serbia | Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi | WCQ | ||
| 24/03/2017 | Austria 2-0 Moldova | Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna | WCQ | ||
| 635 | 24/03/2017 | Republic of Ireland 0-0 Wales | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | WCQ | |
| 11/06/2017 | Moldova 2-2 Georgia | Zimbru Stadium, Chişinău | WCQ | ||
| 11/06/2017 | Republic of Ireland 1-1 Austria | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | WCQ | ||
| 636 | 11/06/2017 | Serbia 1-1 Wales | Ramsey (pen) | Stadion Rajko Mitić, Belgrade | WCQ |
| 02/09/2017 | Georgia 1-1 Republic of Ireland | Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi | WCQ | ||
| 02/09/2017 | Serbia 3-0 Moldova | Stadion Rajko Mitić, Belgrade | WCQ | ||
| 637 | 02/09/2017 | Wales 1-0 Austria | Woodburn | Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff | WCQ |
| 05/09/2017 | Austria 1-1 Georgia | Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna | WCQ | ||
| 638 | 05/09/2017 | Moldova 0-2 Wales | Robson-Kanu, Ramsey | Zimbru Stadium, Chişinău | WCQ |
| 05/09/2017 | Republic of Ireland 0-1 Serbia | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | WCQ | ||
| 06/10/2017 | Austria 3-2 Serbia | Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna | WCQ | ||
| 06/10/2017 | Republic of Ireland 2-0 Moldova | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | WCQ | ||
| 639 | 06/10/2017 | Georgia 0-1 Wales | Lawrence | Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, Tbilisi | WCQ |
| 09/10/2017 | Moldova 0-1 Austria | Zimbru Stadium, Chişinău | WCQ | ||
| 09/10/2017 | Serbia 1-0 Georgia | Stadion Rajko Mitić, Belgrade | WCQ | ||
| 640 | 09/10/2017 | Wales 0-1 Republic of Ireland | Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff | WCQ |
Head to head
| AUT | GEO | IRL | MDA | SRB | WAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUT | 1-1 | 0-1 | 2-0 | 3-2 | 2-2 | |
| GEO | 1-2 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 1-3 | 0-1 | |
| IRL | 1-1 | 1-0 | 2-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | |
| MDA | 0-1 | 2-2 | 1-3 | 0-3 | 0-2 | |
| SRB | 3-2 | 1-0 | 2-2 | 3-0 | 1-1 | |
| WAL | 1-0 | 1-1 | 0-1 | 4-0 | 1-1 |
Group standings
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Serbia | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 20 | 10 | 21 |
| 2. | Republic of Ireland | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 19 |
| 3. | Wales | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 6 | 17 |
| 4. | Austria | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 12 | 15 |
| 5. | Georgia | 10 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 14 | 5 |
| 6. | Moldova | 10 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 23 | 2 |
Following success in qualifying for Euro 2016, Wales were placed in Pot 1 as top seeds for the very first time and were drawn in Group 4 alongside Austria, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Moldova and Georgia.
Wales, playing their first match since the Euro 2016 semi-final defeat, thumped Moldova in front of a capacity crowd at the Cardiff City Stadium, in the opening game of the campaign.
Despite taking the lead twice in the next match in Vienna, Chris Coleman's men had to settle for a 2-2 draw against Austria; the first of five successive drawn games for Wales which included a 1-1 at home to the group's bottom seeds, Georgia.
A debut goal for Ben Woodburn saw Wales beat Austria at the Cardiff City Stadium before a win away in Moldova meant two wins in the final round of matches would secure at least a play-off place for Wales.
Having beaten Georgia in Tbilisi, it boiled down to a winner takes all match in Cardiff against the Republic of Ireland.
James McClean scored the only goal of the game for the Republic of Ireland, ending Wales' hopes of qualification. McClean's goal was the first time Wales had been bnehind during the whole qualifying campaign.
Players used during qualifying
Wales used a total of 22 players during the qualifying campaign with James Chester, Chris Gunter and Wayne Hennessey playing every minute of every game whilst Ashley Williams played all but eight minutes of the campaign.
The campaign saw a first cap for Ben Woodburn during the home game against Austria as well as 50th caps for Sam Vokes at home to Serbia and Aaron Ramsey in Georgia.
Neil Taylor became the 17th player to be sent off whilst playing for Wales following his red card in Dublin.
| Player | MOL | AUT | GEO | SRB | IRL | SRB | AUT | MOL | GEO | IRL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Allen | 67 | 56 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 37 | ||
| Gareth Bale | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | |||
| James Chester | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| James Collins | 8 | |||||||||
| David Cotterill | 20 | |||||||||
| Ben Davies | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | |
| Chris Gunter | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Emyr Huws | 23 | 1 | 18 | |||||||
| David Edwards | 36 | 90 | 7 | 72 | 90 | 2 | 9 | |||
| Wayne Hennessey | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Emyr Huws | 23 | 1 | 23 | |||||||
| Andy King | 90 | 90 | 75 | 45 | 67 | 90 | 65 | |||
| Tom Lawrence | 23 | 5 | 72 | 61 | 89 | 90 | ||||
| Joe Ledley | 90 | 90 | 67 | 83 | 72 | 90 | 81 | 90 | ||
| Neil Taylor | 90 | 89 | 70 | 90 | 69  | |||||
| Aaron Ramsey | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | |||
| Ashley Richards | 18 | 90 | 45 | |||||||
| Hal Robson-Kanu | 15 | 13 | 15 | 67 | 45 | 21 | 88 | 16 | 71 | |
| Sam Vokes | 75 | 77 | 90 | 90 | 45 | 85 | 69 | 23 | 74 | 19 |
| Ashley Williams | 82 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Jonathan Williams | 53 | |||||||||
| Ben Woodburn | 18 | 29 | 1 | 25 |
