Wales swatted minnows Liechtenstein aside to maintain their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying in preparation for Monday's potentially pivotal encounter with Belgium.

Wales were as dominant as you would expect them to be against largely part-time opponents without a competitive win for five years, but they were initially frustrated by the dogged, ultra defensive and time-wasting Liechtensteiners.

Eventually, the hosts made the breakthrough shortly before half-time as Joe Rodon headed in his first international goal from Sorba Thomas' corner.

Liechtenstein barely ventured out of their own penalty area, never mind their half, yet they were somehow able to resist the tides of Welsh pressure until they succumbed to two quickfire goals after the interval.

Harry Wilson nodded in his fifth goal in seven games for Wales from Jay Dasilva's excellent cross and, two minutes later, Kieffer Moore struck on the rebound after David Brooks' shot was saved.

The only sour note of the evening for Wales was an injury to Nottingham Forest defender Neco Williams, who left the field on a stretcher in agony during the first half after appearing to land awkwardly while attempting to cross the ball.

But there was good news from Skopje, where North Macedonia scored a late equaliser to draw 1-1 with Group J's top seeds Belgium.

A second victory from three matches moves Wales to the summit of Group J, two points ahead of North Macedonia in second and six in front of fourth-place Belgium, who have two games in hand.

Wales travel to Brussels on Monday to face the 2018 World Cup semi-finalists in a fixture that could have a huge bearing on both sides' hopes of qualifying automatically.

Bellamy said he had sleepless nights preparing for this game, even though only five teams in the world are ranked lower than Liechtenstein in 205th.

Wales, a lofty 29th by comparison, have a head coach who is obsessed by football's tactical intricacies, to such an extent that he had analysed as many games involving the predominantly part-time Liechtensteiners as he had done for more prestigious previous opponents such as Turkey.

Bellamy warned his players that a failure to respect any fixture would "catch them out", but there were no such concerns on this occasion – even if the game did not pan out as smoothly as they might have hoped.

As expected, Wales monopolised possession from the first whistle, but had to endure a frustrating opening 39 minutes.

The home side had plenty of efforts on goal, though they were either off target – in the cases of Wilson, Ben Davies and Rodon – or brilliantly repelled by Liechtenstein goalkeeper Benjamin Buchel, where Brennan Johnson and Ethan Ampadu were concerned.

Wales' irritation was compounded by the visitors' time-wasting, which started four minutes into the game, and the pernickety officiating of referee Anastasios Papapetrou.

Those annoyances soon disappeared, though, when Rodon's head made a thumping connection with Thomas' corner to make the breakthrough.

Wales continued to suffocate their opponents after the break and got their reward when Dasilva swung in a delicious cross deep from the left which was gratefully headed in by the onrushing Wilson.

The hosts added to their lead soon afterwards, with substitute Brooks having a shot saved by Buchel, but Moore was on hand to blast in the rebound.

Bellamy did not entertain any questions about Belgium before this game was done, a mark of respect for Liechtenstein as well as an emphasis on Wales' need to focus on the immediate challenge ahead.

But this was always likely to be a routine victory. Now Wales can turn their attention to Brussels on Monday night, the toughest test yet of the Bellamy era and a rigorous examination of his team's World Cup credentials.