Rob Page says he wishes Wales were not playing a friendly against South Korea on Thursday.
Wales are not in Euro 2024 action until Monday when they travel to Latvia for a crucial Group D qualifying clash.
But UEFA regulations stipulate that nations in odd-numbered qualifying groups must fulfil blank dates in the calendar when group rivals are playing.
Wales filled this date by arranging a Cardiff friendly with Jurgen Klinsmann’s South Korea, but the game has failed to capture the imagination of the Welsh public with only 11,500 tickets sold little more than 24 hours before kick-off.
Page is expected to field a shadow side just four days before the Riga showdown with Latvia, and the under-fire Wales boss confirmed that skipper Aaron Ramsey would be absent while adding that Tottenham’s new £47.5million forward Brennan Johnson will be on the bench.
But Page’s comments that he would rather not play the match will certainly do little to encourage fans who have paid for the privilege of watching it.
“We have to take the friendly. I’d rather not play it, being completely honest with you,” Page said at his pre-match press conference.
“We’ve had a couple of injuries anyway. The most important game for me is Monday and we’re having to manage players.
“I’ve already got a plan in place, what players, what minutes they’ve played this season, who needs more minutes than others.
“There will be plenty of substitutions. There will be some at half-time, some at the hour mark. We’ll be trying to get those players off the pitch unscathed and getting them ready for Monday.”
Page has come under pressure following a run of only one win in 12 games either side of the 2022 World Cup when Wales finished bottom of their group and scored only one goal – a penalty from the now-retired Gareth Bale.
Wales have picked up four points from as many Euro 2024 qualifiers and are seeking to recover from back-to-back June defeats to Armenia and Turkey.
Qualifying for the tournament in Germany next summer through the play-offs now appears Wales’ best option.
“Everybody in that changing room understands the difficulties involved,” Page said.
“It’s not just about winning games of football now, it’s about the bigger picture. Everybody wants to win games of football but they understand, the senior players, that we have to start introducing younger players.
“It’s nice to hear their backing (of the senior players). It means a lot, the world to me.”
Joe Morrell and Kieffer Moore are suspended for the Latvia qualifier and set to start against South Korea.
The pair became the latest Wales players to be sent off in June after Ethan Ampadu and Harry Wilson were red carded at Euro 2020 and Wayne Hennessey was shown his marching orders at the 2022 World Cup.
Page said: “If we are going to compete at this level we need 11 players on the pitch. Both players regret the red cards. They were both disappointing. Kieffer’s red was a bit more disappointing because he rose to the bait.
“They knew what they were doing and they are the masters of the dark arts at that level, and we fell for it. We are better than that and it will be addressed.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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