Wales will face Poland for a place at Euro 2024 after a 4-1 win over Finland at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Goals from David Brooks and Neco Williams in the first half and an early second half finish from Brennan Johnson settled the tie on a mostly comfortable night for the red wall, despite Teemu Pukki’s calm first half finish.

Dan James’ finish after Miro Tenho’s error within the final five minutes ensured fans could start their preparations for Tuesday nights crunch final play-off early.

Manager Rob Page had made the bold call to leave out target man Kieffer Moore from his starting XI and instead opted for a front three of Brooks, Johnson and Harry Wilson and within three minutes that decision seemed fully justified.

Wilson, cutting in from the left saw his attempted one two with Johnson ricochet back into his path and his left foot shot was palmed out by Finland goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky straight to Brooks who was there to gleefully volley home the rebound.

It was lift off for the Welsh faithful, the start they had all dreamed of, but what followed was a pattern of play that surprised many inside the Cardiff City Stadium.

Finland began to dominate possession, and not five minutes after Wales’ opener had a great chance to equalise when left wingback Daniel Hakans was the beneficiary of a Pukki knock down only to see his volley blaze high and wide.

Pukki had a chance of his own minutes later, springing the offside trap but his left foot strike was hit tamely towards Danny Ward.

Johnson thought he’d replicated the former Norwich man’s trick from the resulting counterattack, only to see the offside flag raised after his effort was saved.

The game looked like it was going to be a long one for Wales on the counterattack and when Chris Mepham’s wayward pass fell to Pukki many feared the worst but Joe Rodon did well to halt the former Canary before the Finn ran the ball out for a goal kick.

It wouldn’t take long for Wales to ease those nerves. When Johnson was fouled on the edge of the D everyone expected Wilson to step up and whip the ball into the goalkeeper’s top right-hand corner.

However, he was merely the foil. Calmly backheeling the ball into the path of Williams who curled a calm finish into the opposite top corner and wrong-footing Hradecky.

2-0 Wales. Cruising. But it’s never that straight forward for us Welsh is it?

In the last minute of the first half Finland struck, Pukki latching on to a through ball from Joel Pohjanpalo via a ricochet off Ben Davies and calmly slotting the ball past Ward at his near post.

Cue grumbles going into half time, “We never do it the easy way” said one fan, “Here we go again,” said another. Ever the pessimists.

Wales came out in the second half with an ambition to calm those that had made it back after their half-time cuppa.

From a freekick on the left, Wilson’s ball towards the back post was nodded down by Ethan Ampadu with Brooks knocking it goalwards before Johnson slotted home from barely two yards out into an almost empty net.

There was an anxious wait to see if Johnson was offside again but following a quick VAR check it was clear that he was being played onside by a Finnish player on the floor.

Wilson looked set to add his own name to the scoresheet but when he cut onto his left foot on the edge of the box his shot curled agonisingly wide rather than nestling in the far corner as the home fans expected.

When Kieffer Moore replaced Brooks, Page would have been delighted to see all four sides of the stadium rise to cheer the on-loan Southampton man’s performance and would have been similarly pleased to see the same response when Johnson was removed for Dan James.

Some have questioned Page’s tactics in the past, but this was a decision which clearly paid off with all members of his front three heavily involved in Wales’ first three goals.

Wales thought they had a fourth with just 15 minutes remaining when Williams’ header was met by captain Ben Davies and his header crossed the line before being clawed out by Hradecky but referee Istvan Kovacs ruled it out following a VAR check.

It didn’t matter to the Welsh fans though. There was still time for a spine-tingling rendition of Mae Hen Wlad fy nhadau before Dan James made completely sure of the win.

Chasing a seemingly lost cause he put pressure on Finland defender Miro Tenho who wanted too long to control the ball, with James rounding goalkeeper Hradecky and calmly slotting home to an empty net.

The only disappointment would have been that Wilson was unable to add his own name to the scorers, but he will get a chance sooner rather than later, on Tuesday night when Wales host Poland after Robert Lewandowski and co dispatched 10-man Estonia 5-1.