Wales boss Craig Bellamy believes Erling Haaland will not be distracted by the bombshell verdict which found Manchester City guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules.
City’s Norway striker Haaland plays for the first time in Cardiff on Thursday since an independent commission found City guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18.
Haaland scored three times in Nations League games against Denmark and Portugal in the past week, taking his incredible Norway record to 65 goals in 57 appearances.
Asked if the guilty verdict could affect Haaland in their Nations League meeting, Bellamy, a City player himself between 2009 and 2011 who declined to comment on the commission’s findings, said: “I don’t think he’d be distracted. The guy’s a machine.
“You see his record at international level. He just wants to score. That isn’t stopping.
“If you love football, you have to appreciate him. There are loads of ways to deal with him, but it’s difficult to pinpoint a certain one because it’s very rare you have a player who is this size and has his mobility.
“In other sports (rugby union) we had the Jonah Lomu factor. We’re coming through the Haaland factor at this present moment.
“What always remains is that he’s always alive. Once that ball comes into the box, he’s always alive.
“He lives for certain moments, which is really nice, but really hard to handle as well.”
Wales are bottom and without a point in Group A4 after away defeats in Portugal and Denmark.
Much of the good work from an encouraging performance in Lisbon was undone by a tepid display in Copenhagen on Sunday.
Wales were beaten 2-0 but, in truth, it could have been considerably more and Bellamy acknowledged as much after reviewing the video evidence hours after the final whistle.
Bellamy said: “I never want to put the players in the position we were in on Sunday, because I feel for them. I feel their heartbreak. I’m like, ‘Come on then. Let’s get back. Let’s do this’.
“Sometimes you need a reboot. There’s that one moment that I come away from the game Sunday after watching it back – and I watched it in Denmark back.
“Usually I don’t watch it straight away because I’m always conscious that decisions can be a little bit too emotional.
“But I came away with a feeling of, ‘I didn’t recognise us’. That hurt me the most. Not the players, trust me – me. Watching me.
“I know I will feel like that again. I’m prepared for it, but the less I can feel like that, the more then I can own it.”
Norway opened their Nations League campaign with a home victory over Denmark before losing to Portugal in Oslo.
Bellamy said: “You can see how well they’ve done in the World Cup (quarter-finals), but this team has been on a surge for a number of years.
“It’s progressing and they aren’t going away, especially with the youngsters they have coming through.”
Bournemouth forward David Brooks will miss both the Norway game and Denmark’s visit on Sunday through injury.
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