Thousands of Wales football fans will be brandishing yellow cards at the opposition during the home team's key European Championship qualifier against Italy on Wednesday.

The mock yellow cards come with soccer cliches in English, Welsh and Italian written on them and are designed to be a bit of fun, say their creators the Welsh Language Board.

Yellow card cliches:

Send 'im off - Bant a fe! - Espellerlo! All the time ref! - Bob tro reff! - Bella! Penalty! - Cic o'r smotyn! - Rigore! Offside! - Camsefyll! - Fuorigioco!

The cards feature phrases for "offside!", "send 'im off!" and "penalty!"

Meanwhile, the Welsh Assembly has apologised for a press release in Italian by First Minister Rhodri Morgan, in which he praised the skills of Italian players who will be absent on Wednesday.

The gaffe caused some amusement in the Italian media and an assembly spokesman blamed the mistake on the lengthy translation process.

Thousands of the Welsh Language Board yellow cards will be issued before the crunch game on Wednesday at the Millennium Stadium.

The card gives phrases in three languages

Expectations among the Welsh fans is riding high after Wales' 2-0 away win in Finland, getting them off to an excellent start in group nine.

The Welsh Language Board believes its yellow cards will add to the excitement during the match.

A WLB spokeswoman said: "It's all good fun - the phrases should make people laugh. We hope people will have a go shouting them in all three languages.

"But the important thing is that we hope to reach young people at the match to promote the use of the language in all corners of Wales."

The yellow cards will be given out before the game

Welsh-speaker John Hartson said the cards were a great idea for getting the fans more involved in the match, which sold out weeks ago.

"It'll be good for everyone to know what the other fans are shouting."

Staff at the language board's Cardiff office in the shadow of the stadium will be out and about on the night handing out the yellow cards.

They also double up as free postcards for fans to give their address for more information about learning Welsh, helping children to speak the language and bilingual business use.

Francesco Totti: Not playing

The spokeswoman said: "We are also giving out many to Italian restaurants in the city.

"We hope people enjoy using them on a great night out - and we hope that Wales win as well."

In his address, Rhodri Morgan wrote: "What a fantastic game we have in prospect. Mark Hughes' men would never underestimate the ability of any Italian team, especially one which includes such footballing legends as Vieri and Totti."

But Mr Morgan was left looking embarrassed, as both Vieri and Totti are injured, with Vieri never in the squad and Totti pulling out a week before the game.

The letter was to media organisations such as television company RAI and leading newspapers La Stampa and La Republica.