A WREXHAM fan now living in Qatar has told of how she 'no longer has to explain that Wales is not in England' due to the power of the World Cup.

The Leader first spoke to Karen Wallace Salisbury after the opening Group B match between Wales and USA, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Karen left Wrexham for the middle east six years ago after her husband Stuart was offered a new job opportunity there.

Both of them had previously worked at Wrexham Maelor Hospital but moved Qatar when Stuart was offered a job as a resuscitation manager at Hamad Hospital.

Wales' first World Cup match in 64 years took place at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium - not far at all from their current home at The Pearl in Doha.

Read more: Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds' heartfelt response to Wales' World Cup exit

Since then, Karen has been to the other two group matches which followed for Wales, which unfortunately ended in 2-0 and 3-0 defeats to Iran and England respectively.

But despite Wales' early exit from the grandest footballing competition of them all, Karen says she's proud of Wales staff and players for having put the country on the world map.

She said: "Qatar has opened its heart to Wales, everywhere you go when wearing a Wales top now people stop you to talk about the team and the country.

"We may not have gone through to the next round, but you can feel the pride amongst the Welsh fans here which is amazing to be a part of. We’ll be at the next England game, but instead of our Welsh shirts we’ll be wearing our Wrexham AFC shirts as that’s our other team we’re really proud of.

"Never did I think I would have ever been able to go to a World Cup, but I have felt so proud being able to support Wales at the games.

"I’ve loved being amongst so many other Welsh fans who have now put Wales on the map for the rest of the world. I no longer have to explain that Wales is not in England which is what many people this side of the world thought."

Unfortunately, Tuesday's match (November 29) - the latest attended by Karen and husband Stuart - ended in a 3-0 defeat to old foes England thanks to a Marcus Rashford double and a Phil Foden goal.

The Leader:

PIC: The view of some of the other fans from Karen's seat.

Talking about being at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium for that one, Karen said: "The atmosphere was amazing, so many Welsh fans as well as England supporters. All fans were mixed together which I never thought I’d witness, and all wishing each other good luck.

"As usual the Wales fans were on good form when singing the national anthem, really does make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Obviously we didn’t get the result we wanted, but the fans were amazing at the end applauding the team and singing to them.

"It was a strange feeling as we were disappointed we lost, yet we were so proud to have been able to finally see Wales play in a World Cup again.

"Whilst feeling so proud to see Wales play, I felt they just didn’t have the same strength as the other teams playing. They seemed to lack something on the pitch, definitely not the best I’ve seen them play.

"Now they’ve had a taste of the World Cup I believe they’ll come back bigger and better in the future, as we have some amazing young players with a great future in front of them."

Karen says that she and Stuart will be continuing to enjoy the World Cup experience on what is now home soil for them even after Wales' early exit.  

They have tickets for the round of 16 tie between England and Senegal which takes place at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor on Sunday (December 4).

She added: "After that we don’t know as we’ll see what tickets are available."