| Venue: Stok Racecourse, Wrexham Date: Wednesday, 11 October Kick-off: 19:45 BST |
| Coverage: Live on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website and app, plus live text |
| Highlights: Match of the Day Wales, BBC One Wales from 23:10 BST and later on demand |
Wales are expected to field a young and inexperienced team for Wednesday’s friendly against Gibraltar in Wrexham.
Wales manager Robert Page’s priority is Sunday’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Croatia at Cardiff City Stadium.
With that in mind, Page will rest his first-team players and select a host of fringe and uncapped youngsters against Gibraltar, who are 198th in the Fifa world rankings.
“The senior players have had made it easy for them to settle in,” said Page.
“They have more than held their own in training and I’m looking forward to watching them play a competitive game.”
This will be the first senior encounter between Wales and Gibraltar, who have met at under-21, under-19 and semi-professional levels.
The fixture will also mark the return of international football to Wrexham’s Stok Racecourse home for the first time since Wales beat Trinidad and Tobago there in 2019.
As Page looks to protect his first-choice players for Sunday’s important match against Croatia, the Wales manager is set to hand debuts to several players against Gibraltar.
Reading’s 20-year-old midfielder Charlie Savage, son of former Wales midfielder Robbie, and Owen Beck, a 21-year-old Liverpool left-back on loan at Dundee, are in the senior squad for the first time.
Two other uncapped players, Fulham midfielder Luke Harris and Portsmouth defender Regan Poole, are also in line for debuts having been recalled.
Page was previously Wales’ intermediate manager, in charge of the Under-21s as well as the Under-17s and Under-19s, before becoming part of the senior side’s coaching set-up.
“This for me is the perfect opportunity to show supporters what we’ve got coming through but for me to have closer look at them,” said Page.
“Some of these were in the younger age groups so I’ve worked with them, I know their potential and it’s lovely seeing them progress.”
Team news
Wales are without captain Aaron Ramsey, who will be out for a minimum of eight to 10 weeks with a ruptured tendon in his knee.
As well as missing Sunday’s European Championship qualifier against Croatia, Ramsey will be unavailable for the final two matches of Wales’ qualifying campaign against Armenia and Turkey in November.
Tottenham forward Brennan Johnson will also be absent against Gibraltar and Croatia, though his hamstring injury is not thought to be serious.
Johnson’s Spurs team-mate, defender Ben Davies, will captain Wales against Croatia in Ramsey’s absence but he might be among the players rested against Gibraltar.
Page says Bournemouth defender Chris Mepham, who has not played any football since the September international break, is “not right” for Gibraltar but remains with the Wales squad in the hope that he will be fit to face Croatia.
Swansea City centre-back Ben Cabango has been forced out of the squad with a hamstring injury and has been replaced by uncapped Wycombe Wanderers defender Joe Low, while Sheffield United goalkeeper Adam Davies was another late withdrawal from the squad. He has been replaced by Wolves’ Tom King.
Page has also indicated that he will be without Rangers winger Rabbi Matondo and Queens Park Rangers defender Morgan Fox because of injury.
Match facts
- This is the first senior international encounter between Wales and Gibraltar, who have met at youth and semi-pro levels in the past.
- The last time Wales faced a fellow European nation for the first time was back in September 2014 against Andorra in a European Championship qualifier, winning 2-1.
- The only British home nation Gibraltar have faced before was Scotland, playing them twice in 2015 in European Championship qualifiers – they lost 6-1 away from home and 6-0 at home.
- Wales won 2-0 against Latvia last time out in a European Championship qualifier. They have not registered consecutive wins in all competitions since November 2021.
- In all competitions, Gibraltar have lost their past 11 away matches by an aggregate score of 45-3. Their last away win came in Liechtenstein in a Uefa Nations League match in October 2020.
- Wales have drawn their past four friendly matches, most recently with South Korea in September, with three of those four draws ending goalless. The other was a 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic in March 2022.
- Of Wales’ past 30 goals in all competitions, more than half have come via set-pieces (16), scoring six penalties, five goals from corners, two direct free-kick goals, two goals from throw-ins and one indirect free-kick goal in that time.
