Slovenia 1-1 Wales: Kayleigh Green scores equaliser but gets sent off
Kayleigh Green of Wales in action. Wales v Kazakhstan in FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifier at Parc y Scarlets on the 17th September 2021. Credit: Lewis Mitchell
Wales produced a gritty display in Lendava to secure draw 1-1 with Slovenia.
In a hard-fought match where Wales produced enough opportunities to win, Slovenian goalkeeper Zala Meršnik was the player of the match and thwarted the efforts of the Welsh attackers.
It could have been worse for Wales. Manja Rogan put Slovenia ahead with a strike from the edge of the box, but Wales responded two minutes later with a header from Kayleigh Green.
Green found herself getting sent off for a second bookable offence, but Gemma Grainger’s side held on to leave Slovenia with a point.
The opening five minutes saw Slovenia pile on the pressure on the Welsh defence, but they coped well and found themselves appealing for a penalty after Jess Fishlock was bought down in the area by Rozmaric, but her protests were waved away by the Swedish referee, who was more than happy to let challenges go throughout what was a very physical match.
Chances came and went for both teams throughout the half. Slovenia produced most of their chances through Zver and Kolbl down the wing, while Kayleigh Green and Rhiannon Roberts had great chances but were denied by Meršnik in the Slovenian net.
The second half got underway and Slovenia had a chance to take the lead straight away. Kolbl found her way into the box one-on-one with Laura O’Sullivan, but she put her effort wide.
In the 69th minute, after Zver dribbled into the box, the ball was cleared to the edge of the area to Rogan. Rogan was not pressured by any Welsh player and had time to pick her spot and subsequently curled her effort in the top corner. O’Sullivan got a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out.
Wales could’ve crumbled after conceding, but two minutes later, Angharad James floated in a free-kick, and Green managed to get there this time and guided her header into the bottom corner. However, five minutes after scoring, Green received her second yellow card.
Meršnik was pressured by Green, and after she cleared it, proceeded to wipe the keeper out and was given her marching orders by the Swedish referee. Wales held on with ten women on the pitch and return home with a point, ahead of their match on Tuesday against Estonia at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Gemma Grainger’s post-match comments: ‘When you come to an away game you never know what to expect … I felt like as the game went on it was very stop-start.
“We knew that this game was going to be very different from the first two games in terms of the standard of opposition.
The foundations of this team are based on our defensive unity, our defensive grit and we take a big amount of pride in that and we delivered that tonight’
