North Macedonia vs Wales predictions: Dragons to take Skopje spoils
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- North Macedonia and Wales both made winning starts in Group J
- Dan James, Ben Davies and Rabbi Matondo all scored in Wales' win over Kazakhstan
- Recommended bet: Wales to win
Craig Bellamy has made a promising start to his time as Wales manager, the Dragons now unbeaten in seven following their 3-1 win over Kazakhstan in Cardiff.
North Macedonia also made a winning start in Group J, seeing off Liechtenstein 3-0 in the Alps on Saturday.
Group favourites Belgium have yet to start their campaign and Wales will know a win in Skopje would give them the perfect platform from which to build a qualifying journey to next summer's tournament in North America.
Team news
Wales were without the services of Aaron Ramsey, Harry Wilson and Wes Burns against Kazakhstan and they will miss out again on Monday.
Sorba Thomas, Daniel James and David Brooks all started, while Rabbi Matondo came off the bench to score his first international goal.
Girona striker Bojan Miovski led the line alongside Aleksandar Trajkovski for North Macedonia in the win over Liechtenstein, both finding the net.
Captain and influential midfielder Enis Bardhi will be in the engine room alongside Torino star Eljif Elmas.
The stats
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Craig Bellamy has not lost any of his seven games in charge of Wales, guiding them to promotion in the UEFA Nations League late last year.
There have only been two previous meetings between these nations, with one home win apiece on the road to Brazil 2014.
Saturday's win over Liechtenstein was a sixth on the trot for North Macedonia under boss Blagoja Milevski.
Goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski has recently kept six consecutive clean sheets — a new national record for North Macedonia.
Bojan Miovski has had six goal involvements in six games for North Macedonia.
Both teams have scored in just one of North Macedonia's last eight World Cup qualifiers.
Prediction
Wales ended a 64-year absence from the World Cup by qualifying for Qatar 2022 and Bellamy can sees his squad making it successive finals appearances, with more places than ever available at an expanded tournament next summer.
"I'm excited to work with the group. We're all just looking forward to it. I genuinely feel this is a group we want to go and win," he said looking ahead to this Group J mission.
Belgium are the team to beat for the automatic place and Wales will feel that getting six points on the board before the Red Devils kick a ball in earnest is the way to go.
Former Aberdeen striker Miovski is one Wales need to keep close tabs on but with Tottenham's Brennan Johnson and the likes of James and Brooks as attacking options, Wales have some excellent threats of their own.
North Macedonia's six-game winning streak alerts Wales to danger, but they have not beaten any team ranked higher than 100th in that sequence.
Bellamy has his side playing nicely and save for a silly penalty concession, they would have eased past Kazakhstan with much more to spare. They can eke out a win in Skopje.
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