Wales Suffer Heavy Loss against classy Portuguese
The Wales Under 23 Semi Professional side battled hard, but were beaten comfortably by a classy Portuguese side, 7-2 in Fatima this afternoon.
The professional Portuguese side, who boasted two full internationals and players from Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon were simply too good for their semi-professional opponents, made up largely from the Principality Welsh Premier League.
Despite this, Wales started the game brighter and Jack Christopher of Haverfordwest had the first shot on goal after TNS's Alex Darlington put the striker in space. The visitors were then disappointed to fall behind when Vitor Gomes scored on 14 minutes with a clinical header from a Fabio Coentrao cross.
Just five minutes later though, Terry Boyle's side restored parity when Darlington forced Nuno Andre Coelho into a mistake and his poor pass was latched onto by Christopher, who ran on goal and finished coolly for his second goal of the campaign. This strike spurred the Welsh on and TNS's Craig Jones continually threatened down the right and he ran Porto's highly rated left-back Fabio Coentrao ragged, until the full international was replaced on 27 minutes.
The change broke down Wales' momentum and they were then stung with a double salvo as the impressive Vieirihna created two carbon copy chances, which were both finished well. On 29 minutes, he broke down the right, cut inside two Welsh defenders and offloaded to Ribeiro who beat Steven Cann in the bottom left corner. He replicated the same move a minute later and this time, Bolton's Ricardo Vaz Te was the beneficiary and he also slotted the ball home in the far left corner for 3-1 on the half-hour. Wales had one chance before the break to pull one back, but Darlington's drive from the edge of the box went agonisingly wide of the post.
The second half told a different story as the hosts enjoyed more time on the ball against their tiring opponents. On 55 minutes, Ribeiro laid it off to his skipper Paolo Machado of Toulouse who made it 4-1 and Bolton's Vaz Te finished clinically from the edge of the box three minutes later for his brace to make it 5-1.
Wales enjoyed some consolation, when an out-swinging Craig Jones corner found debutant sub Rob Williams of Altrincham who headed into the top corner. Further goals from the edge of the box from Bruno Gama and Saleiro made it 7-2, as the gulf in class, fitness and experience paid dividends.
