Wales vs Austria: TV channel, live stream, team news & preview

Wales and Austria are out to keep their World Cup hopes alive when they meet in the qualifying play-offs on Thursday.

The two sides face off in Cardiff and the victor will go on to play either Scotland or Ukraine in June to decide who goes on to play in the tournament in Qatar.

Ahead of the game, GOAL brings you everything you need to know, including how to watch, team news, odds and more.

Game	Wales vs Austria
Date	March 24
Kick-off time	7.45pm GMT

Wales vs Austria TV channel, live stream & how to watch

Sky Sports Main Event is showing Wales vs Austria live on TV in the United Kingdom (UK) and the game can also be streamed live online using Sky Go Extra.

UK TV channel	UK online stream
Sky Sports Main Event	Sky Go Extra

Wales team news & squad

Position	Players
Goalkeepers	Hennessey, A Davies, King
Defenders	B Davies, Rodon, Cabango, Ampadu, Mepham, Williams, Norrington-Davies, Roberts, Gunter
Midfielders	Levitt, Ramsey, Colwill, Morrell, Vaulks, Allen, Wilson, Williams
Forwards	Bale, Johnson, Harris, James, Thomas, Matondo

Joe Morrell is suspended for this tie, while Gareth Bale's fitness has been in question after missing Real Madrid's 4-0 defeat to Barcelona.

However, the ex-Tottenham star has been in training with the Wales squad this week and is likely to be fit to start.

Predicted Wales starting XI: Hennessey, Roberts, Mepham, Davies, Williams, Johnson, Ramsey, Allen, Wilson, Bale, James

Austria team news & squad

Position	Players
Goalkeepers	Bachmann, Lindner, Pentz
Defenders	Alaba, Dragovic, Hinteregger, Lainer, Danso, Posch, Ulmer
Midfielders	Baumgartner, Grull, Laimer, Lazaro, Sabitzer, Schaub. Schlager, Seiwald, Ilsanker, Schopf
Forwards	Arnautovic, Gregoritsch, Kalajdzic, Weimann

Franco Foda had to make four changes to the original squad as Florian Grillitsch, Christopher Trimmel, Philipp Lienhart and Dejan Ljubicic all pulled out.

Kevin Danso, Stefan Ilsanker, Alessandro Schopf and Andreas Weimann have all been drafted in to replace them.

Predicted Austria starting XI: Bachmann, Lainer, Dragovic, Hinteregger, Alaba, Laimer, Ilsanker, Schaub, Sabitzer, Baumgartner, Arnautovic

Betting odds & tips

Austria are slight favourites to beat Wales at 17/10 (2.7) with bet365. Wales can be backed at 7/4 (2.75) to win and a draw is 2/1 (3.0).

Gareth Bale is 9/2 (5.5) to be the game's first goalscorer, while Sasa Kalajdzic is rated 11/2 (6.5).

Neither of these teams are free-scoring machines and are of a similar level, so we could be in for a close encounter in Cardiff. You can get odds of 1/2 (1.5) for the game to have under 2.5 goals.

Recent results & form

Wales last five results	Austria last five results
Wales 1-1 Belgium (November 16)	Austria 4-1 Moldova (November 15)
Wales 5-1 Belarus (November 13)	Austria 4-2 Israel (November 12)
Estonia 0-1 Wales (October 11)	Denmark 1-0 Austria (October 12)
Czech Republic 2-2 Wales (October 8)	Faroe Islands 0-2 Austria (October 9)
Wales 0-0 Estonia (September 8)	Austria 0-1 Scotland (September 7)

Wales made it through their World Cup qualifying group with just one defeat, but were held to draws by Belgium, Estonia and Czech Republic to ensure they missed out on first place.

After such a strong showing, they will fancy their chances of navigating the play-offs.

Austria had a more difficult path to the play-offs, as they finished fourth in their group behind Denmark, Scotland and Israel. Those three teams managed to beat the Austrians in Group F, although winning their UEFA Nations League group secured them a play-off spot.

Odds correct at the time of writing. 18+. begambleaware.org

Wales vs Austria: TV channel, live stream, team news & preview