Leeds United captain Ethan Ampadu admits Wales haven’t been themselves during recent defeats but the resilience remains to turn things around.
Wales host Norway in their third Nations League game of the international break this evening and are still looking for their first goal. Craig Bellamy’s side lost 1-0 against Portugal last week before a 2-0 defeat in Denmark on Sunday.
Ampadu played the full 90 minutes in both games while Leeds teammate Daniel James came off the bench against Portugal before starting in Denmark. Wales are without a win from six games in 2026.
Leeds United captain Ethan Ampadu is confident Wales can turn their form around.placeholder image
Leeds United captain Ethan Ampadu is confident Wales can turn their form around. | Getty Images
Erling Haaland’s Norway will provide another stern test having made it to the World Cup quarter-finals before defeat to England in the summer. Ampadu hopes his nation can put in a performance to be proud of at the Cardiff City Stadium.
“When you go through difficult spells or difficult games, it might be natural for that to happen [confidence to dip],” Ampadu said. “But one thing we've been really good at, even through those hard games, is that resilience and sticking together.
“The defeats haven’t just been difficult because we've lost, but the way we've lost, and it's not been us. It's not been our identity. It's not what we've been good at.
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“It's not been what's got us to the Nations League [Group] A, so obviously a win will boost everyone's mood. But I think to go along with that, a performance that we're proud of.”
Wales earned promotion from Nations League Group B during Bellamy’s early months in charge and enjoyed a great period of results. Naturally, moving into the top-tier means facing some of the world’s best teams during every international break.
After Norway tonight it’s Portugal at home on Sunday with Wales still looking for their first win in Group A, having failed to take three points from any of their previous games in 2022. Ampadu insists the regular challenge is what he and the squad want.
“It's the league we want to be in,” he added. “It's the nature of the game, which is what we all want to be in. These are the games we want to play all the time. So we know there's a lot of hard work to do. There's been some spells that we can work on.
“It's a difficult task against difficult opposition, but one we have full confidence in. It's against very high quality individuals, teams, coaches. So to prepare ourselves for what could be is definitely massive, definitely important.
“But as I said at the start, they are the games we want to play and it's against opposition that we want to test ourselves, improve ourselves, and show our quality. So yeah, they’re hard games, but definitely good games to play.”