90’+5’Second Half ends, Portugal Women 1, Wales Women 1.90’+3’Yellow cardSophie Ingle (Wales Women) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.90’+2’Foul by Sophie Ingle (Wales Women).90’+1’Fatima Pinto (Portugal Women) wins a free kick in the attacking half.90’Attempt blocked. Fatima Pinto (Portugal Women) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.89’Yellow cardInes Figueira Pinto (Portugal Women) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.89’Foul by Ines Figueira Pinto (Portugal Women).89’Jess Fishlock (Wales Women) wins a free kick in the defensive half.87’SubstitutionSubstitution, Wales Women. Hayley Ladd replaces Rachel Rowe.87’Attempt blocked. Fatima Pinto (Portugal Women) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.86’Attempt missed. Jessica Silva (Portugal Women) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.85’Attempt saved. Rachel Rowe (Wales Women) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner.84’Corner, Wales Women. Conceded by Patricia Morais.83’Attempt blocked. Angharad James (Wales Women) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.81’Attempt missed. Rachel Rowe (Wales Women) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
Wales earned a hard-fought draw against World Cup-bound Portugal in Guimaraes, with Rachel Rowe’s stunning volley off the far post levelling the score at 1-1. The hosts had taken the lead through Telma Encarnacao’s low finish on 50 minutes, but Wales captain Sophie Ingle was shown a second yellow card in injury time for a poor tackle on Fatima Pinto, though her side held on for the draw.
The match began with Wales dominating the opening 20 minutes, though they failed to really test goalkeeper Patricia Morais. Portugal almost opened the scoring when Ana Rute unleashed a brilliant long-range effort that bounced off the bar with Olivia Clark beaten. Encarnacao then cut inside onto her left foot on the edge of the area and finished low into the far corner to give Portugal the lead.
Wales responded well and had their first shot on target of the second half when Jess Fishlock tested Morais from distance, but the Portugal keeper did well to hold onto the effort. A few minutes later though Morais was beaten as Rowe connected perfectly with a clearance from an Angharad James corner to volley home the leveller from the edge of the box.
Portugal had one last chance to win it when Clark’s poor clearance was picked up by centurion Jessica Silva, but her last-minute effort went just the wrong side of the post. Wales manager Gemma Grainger said: “It is a really positive result, and for me it is the performance. This team don’t know when they are beaten, when we go a goal down I am pretty confident we are going to score and that is a real unique attribute of any team.”
The draw sees Wales’ unbeaten run continue, with two more positive results under their belt ahead of the Nations League later this year. Both sides went for a different approach at Estádio D. Afonso Henriques, with Portugal boss Francisco Neto making 11 changes from their loss to Japan on Good Friday, while Grainger made no changes from their 4-1 win over Northern Ireland. The result was ultimately a fair one, as Wales showed great resilience to hold on for a draw despite being reduced to 10 players late on.