Wales v Austria live stream and team news: Dragons look to keep World Cup dream alive

Wales host Austria in their World Cup play-off semi-final on Thursday as the Dragons look to keep the Qatar dream alive.

Wales have not played in the World Cup since 1958, so this current squad have the chance to make history if they can seal a passage to Qatar.

The winner of this match will play either Scotland or Ukraine for a place in the showpiece tournament, although that game has been postponed.

Wales will know ‘Das Team’ are no mugs and have played in six World Cups across their history.

But, the Dragons finished second in their group behind Belgium, while Austria were fourth theirs and advanced to the play-offs via their Nations League performance.

Wales certainly won’t be scared of Austria and they can take heart from the fact Scotland took four points off Franco Foda’s side.

Recent history is also stacked in favour of Wales as they are unbeaten in their last three meetings against Austria and won their last clash 1-0 at the Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.

Wales v Austria: Date and start time

This World Cup play-off semi-final will take place on Thursday, March 24.

The Cardiff City Stadium is the venue, with kick-off scheduled for 7:45pm.

Wales are unbeaten in their last seven games and have only conceded six goals in that time.

Wales v Austria: TV channel and live stream

The match will be broadcast on Sky Sports Main Event with coverage starting at 7pm.

Sky Sports customers can live stream this via the app using their mobile, tablet or computer devices.

If not, you can purchase a Sky Sports Day Pass from NowTV for £9.99.

Updates will also be live on talkSPORT throughout the afternoon while talkSPORT.com will be running a live blog for all the action.

Wales v Austria: Team news

The big news for the home side is that Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey are in the squad and should play in one of the Dragons’ biggest matches in recent times.

However, both have had limited game time this season. Bale has played just 270 minutes for Real Madrid across all competitions, while Ramsey has only made three starts for Rangers since joining in January.

Danny Ward has emerged as Wales’ number one goalkeeper over the last year, but he has been ruled out through injury, so boss Robert Page is expected to start Wayne Hennessey.

Wales have also included Tottenham duo Ben Davies and Joe Rodon and don’t have any other injury concerns.

Austria have handed a recall to Bristol City forward Andreas Weimann due to his sublime season in front of goal in the Championship.

The former Aston Villa man hasn’t played for his country in seven years.

Foda has also included former West Ham and Stoke forward Marko Arnautovic as well as Marcel Sabitzer and David Alaba.

Wales v Austria: What has been said?

Robert Page said about Ramsey and Bale: “They’re big players for us, of course they are. We want them playing games coming into camp, but the good thing is they’re fit.

“They both can’t wait to get into camp, so that’s really encouraging for a manager to hear.

“Big players turn up for big games and they’ve proven that over time. The other way of looking at it is they’ll be fresh and raring to go.”

Franco Foda said: “You could see in the World Cup qualifiers that they [Wales] are very strong, after all they haven’t lost a game at home.

“In general, they concede few goals and are good at switching games. We’ll have a lot of possession, we can’t afford to make any mistakes when passing and we have to avoid counter-attacks.”