Nathan Blake
Former Wales striker on BBC Radio Wales

It's our first time at the World Cup in 60-odd years and Rob Page has been fantastic.

He took the job totally out of the blue, in unforeseen circumstances. It would have been easy for Wales to regress at that point but no, he's picked up the reins and run with it and he has done a fantastic job.

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium

Huge cheers from local/neutral fans - as well as the Red Wall - as Gareth Bale's name is read out to the crowd.

Ben Davies says Wales have ambitions of achieving "something special" during this World Cup.

Davies, 29, was part of the side who ended a 58-year absence from major finals by qualifying for the 2016 European Championship - and he will be a key man once more in Qatar.

"It's a success for us just to qualify for a World Cup," said Davies, in what was the first news conference to be held in Welsh in the competition's 92-year history.

"But that doesn't mean we don't have a lot of ambition to do something special in this competition.

"Euro 2016 was something new to us all, travelling around Europe to play in a top competition, that was something different.

"There's a similar feeling now, a new feeling for us facing teams we've not played against before."

Read more: Wales aim for 'something special' - Ben Davies

Image source, FAW

We are receiving reports of fans having rainbow-coloured bucket hats taken off them as they enter the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan tonight.

We will bring you more as we get it.

Jess Fishlock
Wales' most-capped footballer

Captain America Christian Pulisic will be someone that everybody knows and will be looking out for tonight.

I also think Tim Weah is a good player - he's going to be tricky. He's got a lot of quality, young, but he is going to be so ready for this game.

I think Tim Weah is going to be the one to look out for.

Wales midfielder Aaron Ramsey became emotional as he recalled late manager Gary Speed's World Cup qualification ambitions ahead of this tournament.

Speed died in November 2011 and Ramsey and his team-mates have gone on to qualify for the tournament for the first time in 64 years under Robert Page.

You can see the full Ramsey interview on the documentary series Together Stronger, which charts Wales' route to the World Cup.

It is not to be missed.

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium

My colleague Carl Roberts bumped into these two USA fans - Jonathan and Melanie from Miami - on his way into the ground.

It's a strong look.

Image source, BBC Sport

The story of the career of Robert Page, the first man since Jimmy Murphy to lead Wales to a World Cup, told by his former junior coaches in Tylorstown and the man himself.

Wales face USA on Monday in their first match at the finals of the tournament for 64 years.

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales in Doha

BBC Sport Wales recently visited Pentre to take a look at the valleys football factory which has produced so many of Wales' great coaches.

Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper and new Southampton boss Nathan Jones played there in the early 1990s, while former Wales manager Jayne Ludlow grew up nearby and took her first steps towards a stellar playing career with Arsenal at Treorchy Comprehensive School.

Even closer to Pentre Park, barely a goal-kick away, is the house where Jimmy Murphy lived. He was the last - and until this year the only - man to lead Wales at a World Cup, and there is a blue plaque outside the house to mark his achievement.

Robert Page joins Murphy in an exclusive club his Wales side face the United States in Qatar.

Remarkably, Page is another product of this Rhondda football factory and, as he says himself, his valleys roots are an intrinsic part of the man he is today.

Read more: Wales boss Robert Page and the valleys football factory

Image source, BBC Sport

Chris Bevan
BBC Sport at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, Qatar

Image source, BBC S

A huge roar greeted the Wales players as they ran out to warm-up.

They might need to get warm tonight, because the temperature in Doha has dropped noticeably from the weekend. I hope those Wales fans brought their jumpers!

I know we are bombarding you with Wales content right now, but here are a couple of things to listen to later.

There is this profile of Wales captain Gareth Bale, from our colleagues at Radio 4.

Away from Wales, we also have a bonus episode of the World Cup Daily pod as Mark Chapman is joined by 5 Live football correspondent John Murray and former England internationals Rob Green, Matthew Upson and Jermaine Jenas for reaction to England’s 6-2 win over Iran in their opening Group B match.

You’ll hear from England manager Gareth Southgate as well as Kieran Trippier, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham.

Image source, Getty Images

Jess Fishlock
Wales' most-capped footballer

I think it's absolutely ridiculous and borderline disgusting that they threaten our players with bookings if you stand for value and human rights.

The weight of all of this should not have to fall on to our players, it should have been dealt with way before that even happened.

As we mentioned a little earlier, Gareth Bale will not be wearing the OneLove armband tonight.

That is after England, Wales and other European nations decided against asking their respective captains to don the armband at the World Cup in Qatar because of the threat of players being booked.

The skippers had planned to wear the armband during matches to promote diversity and inclusion.

A joint statement from seven football associations said they could not put their players "in a position where they could face sporting sanctions".

"We are very frustrated by the Fifa decision, which we believe is unprecedented," the statement read.

The governing bodies - England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland - said they had written to Fifa in September informing them about the OneLove armband but there had been no response.

"Fifa has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play," the statement added.

"We were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations and had a strong commitment to wearing the armband.

"However, we cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked, or even forced to leave the field of play."

Read more: England, Wales & other European nations will not wear OneLove armbands

Marianna Spring
Disinformation and social media correspondent

Allegations that "fake" fans have been paid by Qatar to support England and other popular teams have been going viral on social media. It comes after videos of them in matching shirts and chanting were shared widely online, with captions saying Qatar “has paid people to dress as fake fans”.

I’ve identified and tracked down several of the people in those viral videos for Newscast. Those I've spoke to are people from Indian and Sri Lankan who live and work in Qatar. They have told me they are committed fans and are delighted to be able to watch their favourite teams play: England, Argentina, Brazil and others. Their social media profiles, which have posted about these footballs teams for years, support this.

They say they have not been paid by Qatar to attend or support specific teams. There's no evidence otherwise to support this allegation - and it's a claim World Cup organisers rejects. While they could have been provided with merchandise and shirts, I’m currently yet to uncover evidence of that happening directly.

Just because you’re not from the country you’re supporting it doesn’t make you a “fake” or “paid up” fan. These narratives are drawn from conspiracies about crisis actors we've seen spreading more readily online since the pandemic.

It's a fertile time for online disinformation to go viral because of the controversies surrounding this World Cup. Lgitimate wrong-doing can be muddled up with false allegations and it's vital to unpick them.

Why? Well, it can have a real-world impact - what happens if someone targets an alleged fake fan with abuse online - or off? It’s about separating fact from fiction, understanding what’s happening and why - and piecing together the truth of this complex World Cup.

Listen to BBC Newscast on BBC Sounds for more:Investigating World Cup "fake" fans on Newscast

Chris Bevan
BBC Sport at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, Qatar

Image source, BBC Sport

The Wales fans are massed behind one of the goals at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, taking up the entire lower tier and part of the second one too - and they are already making themselves heard, even above the din of the sound system here.

Plenty more Welsh flags and shirts visible around every other side of the ground too.

Are you in Qatar, a fan zone or following from the comfort of your own home?

Show us how you are enjoying the World Cup here

Bucket hats are everywhere in Wales. Not just in the crowd when the national football team play - where they are practically uniform - but in schoolyards, city centre squares in statue form and even in hardware shops, hanging incongruously above paint pots and tools.

The distinctive red, yellow and green colours are an emblem of a footballing nation in the midst of its most glorious era; the ubiquity of the hats reflects the team's unprecedented success.

But it was not always this way. Far from it.

In 1994, only 11 supporters travelled to Georgia to watch Wales get thrashed 5-0 and, as recently as 2011, the nation's football team languished outside the top 100 in the world rankings.

"We called it the best-kept secret," says Richard Grigg, one of the 11 in Tbilisi 28 years ago.

Now an estimated 3,000 fans - and that is only those officially accounted for - will be in Qatar to follow Wales at their first World Cup for 64 years.

If the tournament was in a more accessible country, the number would doubtless be greater, as evidenced by the 25,000 who were in Bordeaux for Wales' opening match of Euro 2016.

The seas of red which descended on France that summer embodied a new age for Welsh football, not only triumphant on the pitch but representing a new national confidence away from it.

Read more: Wales fans' rise from counterculture to mainstream

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Neco Williams starts for Wales tonight - and he says plaing in the World Cup exceeds his wildest dreams.

Williams is only 21 but has already secured Premier League and Championship title-winning medals and also played for Wales at Euro 2020.

Now the Nottingham Forest wingback will have a World Cup appearance to add to his achievements.

"As a kid I dreamt of playing for Wales and being a professional footballer," Williams told BBC Sport Wales.

"Going to the World Cup is just the cherry on the top. All this coming together now is even more than what I dreamt of.

"Sixty-four years we've been waiting for this - a very long time - and I'm part of the squad going to the World Cup. It's a surreal feeling.

"It will be special for me, my family and my friends."

Read more: Neco Williams says World Cup 2022 spot is 'surreal feeling'

Image source, FAW