NECO WILLIAMS says it would be a “dream come true” for Wales to qualify for the 2022 World Cup and end their 64-year wait to grace the tournament.

Wales host Austria in a World Cup play-off semi-final at the Cardiff City Stadium tomorrow.

The winners will play Scotland or Ukraine in June to decide a World Cup place, something Wales have not experienced since reaching the quarter-finals of the competition in Sweden in 1958.

“It’s massive. It’s been a long wait, a long time since Wales qualified for a World Cup,” Wrexham-born Williams, who hails from Cefn Mawr, said.

“I’m sure the whole of Wales is looking forward to this game.

“If we win that, then we’re one step closer to the World Cup.

“You think about it all the time. As players you always want to play in the biggest of tournaments and on the biggest stages.

“We’ve got an unbelievable chance of qualifying for the biggest tournament in the world.

“Hopefully we can do that and showcase to the world what we can do, what quality of players we have and the team we have.

“Qatar is an unbelievable place and to play there against the best teams in the world would be a dream come true.”

Wales have been boosted by the presence of skipper Gareth Bale after the Real Madrid forward missed Sunday’s Clasico with Barcelona through injury.

Real manager Carlo Ancelotti said after the game Bale “didn’t feel well” and that Wales would decide whether or not he features against Austria.

Bale trained with the rest of the Wales squad before the media yesterday and showed no signs of discomfort.

“He’s a professional and a world-class player so he knows how to look after himself,” said Williams, who has shone for Championship leaders Fulham since making a January loan move from Liverpool.

“He’s been training with us and he looks fit and sharp.

“As long as he feels ready and he’s in the best shape possible, then we all know what Gareth’s capable of.”

Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Chris Gunter, Joe Allen and Wayne Hennessey make up the senior group of Wales players who know it is probably now or never as far as playing at a World Cup is concerned.

Scotland will be in with the lowest-ranked seeds for next week’s World Cup draw, along with Wales if they get past Austria.

The four-team World Cup play-off path featuring those two countries had been due to be completed by March 29, but Scotland’s semi-final against Ukraine has been postponed until June due to the Russian invasion of the eastern European country.

Wales play Austria on Thursday in a semi-final, but the winner of that match must then wait until June to play the winner of the Scotland-Ukraine tie.

Tournament organisers FIFA confirmed the procedure for the draw on Tuesday, and revealed that the three teams still in with a chance of progressing through the play-off path by the time of the draw on April 1 will be treated as one entrant, and placed in pot four with the lowest-ranked nations.

The seeding of other nations who have definitely qualified by the time of the draw will be determined by the FIFA rankings due to be published on March 31.

The top pot of seeds will feature the seven highest-ranked sides involved, plus hosts Qatar.

England are currently ranked fifth in the world, with only Belgium, Brazil, France and Argentina above them.