{"id":27724,"date":"2026-03-27T02:59:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T02:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:59:38","slug":"craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Bellamy and Edin Dzeko collide on the touchline as World Cup play-offs end in chaos | Soccer | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Wales manager Craig Bellamy came face-to-face with Bosnian star Edin Dzeko during the final stages of the World Cup play-offs in Cardiff on Thursday. The two sides were in a head-to-head battle for a spot in the World Cup play-off final against Italy on Tuesday, with the match going into extra time and a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Dan James scored from the best area with 25 yards to go and Nikola Vasili&#8217;s unparalleled thunderbolt into the Bosnian goal gave the home side a commanding lead. It felt like it was only a matter of time before Wales would score a second goal as Bellamy&#8217;s side kept knocking on the door.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Unfortunately for the World Cup hopefuls, it didn&#8217;t happen. Instead, Bosnia&#8217;s second goal of the game came from former Manchester City star Dzeko, who headed home from close range. Dzeko, now in his 40s, scored the equalizer with a goal half a yard inside the penalty area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The game continued until the 90th minute, with 30 minutes of overtime added, but tensions were high on the sidelines. Bellamy and several Welsh coaches were furious after a Bosnian player went down injured following a soft attack, much to the disgust of the opposition bench.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Both benches exchanged words, but Bellamy and Dzeko were the most active. The pair were involved in a brief scuffle, and the referee showed both players and Bosnian coach Sergei Barbares yellow cards for their trouble.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>However, it was Dzeko and Bosnia who had the last laugh, as they reached the play-off final. Shootout misses by Brennan Johnson and Neco Williams hurt Wales, who were denied consecutive World Cup appearances for the first time in their history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>After the match, captain Ethan Ampadu told the BBC: &#8220;I&#8217;m speechless. I prepared as well as I could and I think I played well. I&#8217;m proud because I fought for everything, but sometimes things don&#8217;t go your way in life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll always look back at what we could have done better. Maybe we could have managed the last 10 minutes better and stayed more aggressive. That&#8217;s something we can look at in the future, but for now it&#8217;s very disappointing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/2187197\/craig-bellamy-edin-dzeko-wales-bosnia-world-cup\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wales manager Craig Bellamy came face-to-face with Bosnian star Edin Dzeko during the final stages of the World Cup play-offs in Cardiff on Thursday. The two sides were in a head-to-head battle for a spot in the World Cup play-off final against Italy on Tuesday, with the match going into extra time and a penalty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-matches"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Craig Bellamy and Edin Dzeko collide on the touchline as World Cup play-offs end in chaos | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Craig Bellamy and Edin Dzeko collide on the touchline as World Cup play-offs end in chaos | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wales manager Craig Bellamy came face-to-face with Bosnian star Edin Dzeko during the final stages of the World Cup play-offs in Cardiff on Thursday. The two sides were in a head-to-head battle for a spot in the World Cup play-off final against Italy on Tuesday, with the match going into extra time and a penalty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-27T02:59:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/\",\"name\":\"Craig Bellamy and Edin Dzeko collide on the touchline as World Cup play-offs end in chaos | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6826782.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-27T02:59:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6826782.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6826782.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/craig-bellamy-and-edin-dzeko-collide-on-the-touchline-as-world-cup-play-offs-end-in-chaos-soccer-sports\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Craig Bellamy and Edin Dzeko collide on the touchline as World Cup play-offs end in chaos | Soccer | Sports\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\",\"name\":\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"description\":\"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. 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