CAPTAIN Ashley Williams has told Wales' World Cup rivals to forget about trying to kick Gareth Bale out of games.

Bale was singled out for some rough treatment on Monday night as Wales opened their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with a comfortable 4-0 victory over Moldova in Cardiff.

The Real Madrid forward's response was to score twice and move into second position on the all-time Wales scoring list with 24 goals, four short of Ian Rush's national record.

"Gareth is normally the difference and we are going to need him to come up with a bit of magic (to qualify)," skipper Williams said after the Euro 2016 semi-finalists ensured there would be no hangover from their exploits in France.

"We saw a lot of tackles in the last campaign, but it's international football and we've got enough caps to know that's coming.

"We've got a lot of quality players and big names in the team and that's going to happen. But we kept our heads against Moldova and we're more than capable of dealing with it.

"We've got some tough boys who can deal with it and we didn't pick up any silly yellow cards as well. We can look after ourselves."

Wales had to be patient to unlock a Moldova defence which had not conceded more than two goals in a game since England beat them 4-0 in September 2013.

But Bale set up Sam Vokes seven minutes before the break and Joe Allen's first Wales goal on the stroke of half-time put Wales in firm control.

Bale's second-half double, a cool one-on-one finish and a stoppage-time penalty, confirmed Wales' biggest competitive win for over 13 years.

"Gareth is an important player for us obviously," Williams said. "You saw that on the cross for the first goal.

"We needed something a little bit special. We had to patient, which we were, and he unlocked it and the game was a little bit open after that.

"With us being the top seeds, I am guessing that teams will look at us a little bit differently. Maybe, they will not be so adventurous and a little bit more cautious."

Wales head to Austria next month for a crunch game between the group's top two seeds before hosting Georgia three days later.

Austria also made a winning start to their campaign with a 2-1 victory in Georgia on Monday.

"It's what we wanted, to put three points on the board at home and get momentum for the double-header which will obviously be a lot tougher," said Williams.

"We wanted to keep it going as we did the last campaign.

"You could feel it. It was a mature performance and, individually and as a team, we are a lot more sure of ourselves and what we're supposed to do.”