{"id":153651,"date":"2026-03-31T21:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/153651\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:29:09","slug":"wales-and-northern-ireland-play-out-friendly-draw-at-cardiff-city-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/153651\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales and Northern Ireland play out friendly draw at Cardiff City Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jamie Donley raised hopes of a first Northern Ireland victory in this fixture since Noel Brotherston\u2019s winner at Ninian Park 46 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>But Sorba Thomas secured a share of the spoils with an equaliser straight after the interval, extending Wales\u2019 unbeaten run against their visitors to 10 games \u2013 five wins and five draws.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u23f0 FT | \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc77\udb40\udc6c\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc7f 1-1 \u26aa\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>It finishes all square in Cardiff \ud83e\udd1d<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd17 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Y6SDtDkVhU\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/Y6SDtDkVhU<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XV802ox0ah\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/XV802ox0ah<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Wales \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc77\udb40\udc6c\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc7f (@Cymru) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cymru\/status\/2039079141845114935?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>UEFA had insisted Thursday\u2019s beaten play-off semi-finalists \u2013 Wales had lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Northern Ireland to Italy \u2013 met each other in a match ridiculed by many as a waste of time.<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, there were empty seats for a fixture that had been officially declared a sell-out weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>In the event, it was a decent contest but one that inevitably lacked the edge and jeopardy of a more meaningful affair.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides made inevitable changes from Thursday but perhaps not as many as might have been expected.<\/p>\n<p>Wales made five alterations with Thomas, Ben Cabango, Josh Sheehan and Lewis Koumas included and Cardiff\u2019s Joel Colwill getting his first senior international start on his home ground.<\/p>\n<p>Harry Wilson took the armband with Ethan Ampadu among the substitutes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2.84093741.jpg\" alt=\"Jamie Donley\" data-title=\"Wales v Northern Ireland \u2013 International Friendly \u2013 Cardiff City Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"David Davies\" data-usage-terms=\"Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.\"  \/>Jamie Donley opened the scoring (David Davies\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Northern Ireland gave Patrick Kelly his first start in midfield as Ciaron Brown and Eoin Toal came into the defence and Conor Hazard replaced Pierce Charles in goal.<\/p>\n<p>The two nations last met at Euro 2016 when an unfortunate Gareth McAuley own goal settled the tie in Wales\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Ireland were almost punished by another lapse inside seven minutes after Koumas seized on Isaac Price\u2019s wayward pass and warmed the hands of Hazard.<\/p>\n<p>Price was more productive at the other end, flashing a cross into the corridor of uncertainty that evaded everyone, before the visitors struck after 22 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Donley headed Justin Devenny\u2019s centre on to a post and the rebound fell straight to him.<\/p>\n<p>The Spurs forward currently on loan at Oxford poked home his second international goal and might have added another with a sweeter connection from Kelly\u2019s cross.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2.84094282.jpg\" alt=\"Sorba Thomas\" data-title=\"Wales v Northern Ireland \u2013 International Friendly \u2013 Cardiff City Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"David Davies\" data-usage-terms=\"Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.\"  \/>Wales\u2019 Sorba Thomas levelled things up (David Davies\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Northern Ireland\u2019s attacks carried far greater danger and Price, just 10 yards inside the Wales half and having spotted Karl Darlow off his line, tried an audacious attempt that the Wales goalkeeper just about got to safety.<\/p>\n<p>Hazard remained mostly untroubled with Colwill\u2019s header blocked and Wilson sending a free-kick wide from 30 yards.<\/p>\n<p>But Wales levelled within seconds of the restart, with half-time substitute Charles\u2019 first task to pick the ball out of the Northern Ireland net.<\/p>\n<p>David Brooks drove at the visitors\u2019 defence and Thomas reacted quickest to the loose ball to claim his second Wales goal from close range.<\/p>\n<p>Charles did keep out a curling Wilson free-kick and Darlow provided an excellent stop from Brown\u2019s close-range header.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson fired just wide from 18 yards as Wales probed for a winner, but Northern Ireland almost snatched it the death as Callum Marshall\u2019s header cleared the crossbar.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamie Donley raised hopes of a first Northern Ireland victory in this fixture since Noel Brotherston\u2019s winner at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-153651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}