Wales are the second seeds in Group J behind Belgium, with North Macedonia and minnows Liechtenstein making up the rest of the teams along with fourth seeds Kazakhstan.
Only the group winners will qualify automatically for the World Cup, with the runners-up entering the play-offs. Wales have already all but guaranteed themselves a play-off place by winning their Nations League group.
They will be overwhelming favourites to beat Kazakhstan, who are 81 places below them in the world rankings, but Bellamy expects periods of frustration against defensive-minded opponents who have not scored a competitive goal since 2023.
“It’s got to be a tough game,” the former Liverpool and Manchester City forward added. “You have to earn the right.
“It doesn’t matter who you play. We’ve all been here in international football. We’ve seen it too many times. Nothing is given to you.”
Wales have never faced Kazakhstan, who are 110th in Fifa’s standings, in men’s football since they entered European qualifying in 2002.
Kazakhstan have never qualified for a major tournament, but have enjoyed an upturn in results in recent years. They finished just four points off an automatic qualifying spot for Euro 2024, including notable wins over Denmark, Finland and a double over Northern Ireland, before losing to Greece in the play-offs.
They were relegated from Nations League B in a tough group with Norway, Austria and Slovenia, although they did hold Erling Haaland’s side to a goalless draw in Almaty. Their most recent competitive win was against San Marino in a European Championship qualifier in 2023.
Former Kazakhstan midfielder Ali Aliyev was appointed interim manager in January and has overseen three friendlies so far, drawing against Uzbek club side Lokomotiv Tashkent and losing to North Korea last month before beating Curacao on Wednesday.
The 2-0 victory over Curacao was played in Belek, Turkey, and the Kazakhstan squad flew from there to Cardiff, arriving on Thursday night.
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