Midfielder Morten Gamst Pedersen has warned Wales that he and his Norway team-mates are determined to end 2011 on a high with victory in Saturday's friendly at Cardiff City Stadium.

The 30-year-old Blackburn Rovers player and his colleagues have had to digest the disappointment of their failure to qualify for the UEFA EURO 2012, having missed out on a play-off place on goal difference despite their 3-1 win over Cyprus in their final qualifier.

However, Pedersen insists Egil Olsen's side have moved on, and have set their sights on building momentum towards next year's FIFA World Cup™ qualifying campaign. "We have been doing well, we know we are maybe not the best team in the world but we have a good spirit," Pedersen said.

We have been doing well, we know we are maybe not the best team in the world but we have a good spirit.
Morten Gamst Pedersen, Norwegian midfielder

"We have good players who work hard together and we hope it will be an exciting game and hopefully we can do as well as possible. We lost out on goal difference for the EUROs, but we had a very good game against Cyprus in the last qualifier and you always want to finish the year on a high and go into the new year with confidence to prepare for the World Cup."

Wales are full of confidence themselves having won three of their final four qualifiers, helping them climb from a record low of 117th to 45th in the world rankings. And Pedersen acknowledges the threat that the likes of Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Craig Bellamy will pose. "Wales have loads of good players," he said.

"Players with plenty of experience in the Premier League so it is going to be a tough game. They have players like Ramsey, Bale and Bellamy and a good coach in Gary Speed. Bale is fantastic, he had a fantastic season last year, especially in the Champions League and he will be tough to stop. They have been doing well and they have strong players."