Wales opened their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan.
Daniel James gave Wales an early advantage before a near-capacity 32,473 crowd at the Cardiff City Stadium but that was wiped out by Askhat Tagybergen’s penalty, awarded after Connor Roberts had handled.
Kazakhstan were threatening to throw a spanner in the works but skipper Ben Davies and Rabbi Matondo, with his first Wales goal in the final minute, ensured a winning start for Craig Bellamy’s side.
Elsewhere in Group J, Aleksandar Trajkovski, Visar Musliu and Bojan Miovski all contributed goals in North Macedonia’s 3-0 victory over Liechtenstein.
Erling Haaland was on the scoresheet as Norway took an initial step towards qualifying for the final tournament for the first time since 1998 with a 5-0 thumping of Group I hosts Moldova.
The Manchester City striker – who was born two years after Norway’s last appearance in the global showpiece – scored the second of their five goals after Julian Ryerson opened the scoring in the fifth minute.
Thelo Aasgaard and Alexander Sorloth added two more before the break and substitute Aron Donnum contributed another six minutes after his 63rd-minute introduction.
Group rivals Israel picked up their first three points of the competition with a 2-1 victory over Estonia in Hungary.
Maksim Paskotsi’s 10th-minute opener for Estonia was cancelled out in the first half by his goalkeeper Karl Hein, who was charged with a 23rd-minute own goal.
Eli Dasa netted a 75th-minute winner before Estonian midfielder Markus Soomets was sent off three minutes from time.
Patrik Schick bagged a brace in their opening Group L encounter to lift the Czech Republic to a 2-1 victory over the Faroe Islands.
Gunnar Vatnhamar looked like he might have done enough when he scored an 83rd-minute equaliser to cancel out the Leverkusen striker’s first-half opener, but Schick forged his side back in front two minutes later.
Hosts Montenegro kicked off their own Group L campaign with a 3-1 victory over Gibraltar.
Stevan Jovetic, Marko Tuci and Adam Marusic all netted for the Balkan nation, with Gibraltar’s lone consolation coming via Dan Bent’s 13th-minute opener.
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