4 min: An early booking for Jordan Teze, the PSV defender punished for a late and wholly cynical clip on Dan James.
2 min: It’s all very quiet at the Cardiff City Stadium during the early exchanges. It’s almost as though everyone’s coming off a three-day bender. “Presumably Rob Page’s approach to get the most out of his players today is focused less on tactics and formations and more on rehydration, caffeine and aspirin,” adds Peter Oh.
Whistles are sounded, and balls start rolling all over Europe. It’s all about Wales at the minute, for reasons obvious, so we’ll concentrate primarily on the action in Cardiff, as the home side look to avoid defeat against the Netherlands for the very first time in their history.
Cardiff, Glasgow, Dublin, Brussels … everybody talk about
Pop Muzik
Republic of Ireland v Ukraine. Stephen Kenny makes two changes to the side which went down pitifully in Armenia on Saturday. Cyrus Christie replaces the injured Seamus Coleman at full back, while striker Troy Parrott makes way for midfielder Jason Knight. Ukraine boss Oleksandr Petrakov makes ten changes from Sunday’s soul-crushing World Cup play-off defeat in Wales. Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko starts again, while Dynamo Kyiv midfielder Serhiy Sydorchuk celebrates his 50th cap by captaining the team.
Republic of Ireland: Kelleher, Christie, Stevens, Duffy, Egan, Cullen, Robinson, Collins, Hendrick, Knight, Ogbene.
Ukraine: Lunin, Syrota, Popov, Sydorchuk, Shaparenko, Dovbyk, Mudryk, Mykolenko, Bondar, Kacharaba, Zubkov.
Scotland v Armenia. Celtic full-back Anthony Ralston starts for the first time. He’s one of six changes to the side beaten 3-1 by Ukraine last week. John Souttar, Jack Hendry, Scott McKenna, Stuart Armstrong and Ryan Christie are also in; Grant Hanley, Aaron Hickey, Liam Cooper, Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour and Lyndon Dykes drop out.
Scotland: Gordon, Robertson, Souttar, McGinn, McGregor, Adams, Christie, Hendry, McKenna, Armstrong, Ralston.
Armenia: Yurchenko, Hovhannisyan, Haroyan, Grigoryan, Bayramyan, Spertsyan, Barseghyan, Hovhannisyan, Mkoyan, Hambartsumyan, Adamyan.
Wales v Netherlands. Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey have been rested by Rob Page, who makes seven changes from Sunday’s World Cup play-off victory against Ukraine. Ben Davies, Joe Rodon, Connor Roberts and Daniel James are the four survivors, with Bale on the bench. Louis Van Gaal meanwhile makes 11 changes from the Netherlands’ opening-night Nations League rout of Belgium.
Wales: Ward, Levitt, Davies, Mepham, Rodon, Wilson, Johnson, Roberts, Morrell, Norrington-Davies, James.
Netherlands: Flekken, Teze, de Ligt, de Vrij, Gakpo, Lang, Hateboer, Malacia, Schouten, Weghorst, Koopmeiners.
Preamble
It’s a big-ish evening in the Nations League. Wales come back to earth after qualifying for the World Cup for the first time with 1958, taking on the Netherlands in Group A4. The Dutch always beat the Welsh – eight wins out of eight! – so good luck to Rob Page’s second string this evening. Meanwhile in Group B1, Scotland get their campaign underway with a supposedly easy home tie against Armenia, but look what they did to the Republic of Ireland last weekend. Meanwhile, Ireland themselves host Ukraine, who have some disappointment of their own to get over. All the games kick off at 7.45pm BST and we’ll keep you posted right here. It’s on!
A4: Belgium v Poland
A4: Wales v Netherlands
B1: Republic of Ireland v Ukraine
B1: Scotland v Armenia