Northern Ireland and Wales grind to stalemate
John Toshack opted to rest Ryan Giggs for the friendly
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Tuesday, 06, Feb 2007 11:14
Northern Ireland enjoyed the best of their Windsor Park friendly against Wales, but were unable to covert control of the game into goals as the match spluttered to a 0-0 draw.
The hosts quickly exercised Wales goalkeeper Danny Coyne with Kyle Lafferty and Chris Blunt both demanding smart saves in the opening period.
John Toshack's men gradually became more of a force in the game as the half wore on and the pace of Craig Bellamy up front at times threatened to pull apart the Northern Ireland backline.
The Liverpool striker looked the likeliest source of a breakthrough for the visitors, who looked sorely missed the qualities of the rested Ryan Giggs and dead-ball specialist Gareth Bale, who watched from the substitutes' bench.
An insipid encounter improved marginally after the break as the home side displayed greater attacking ambition and they came close to being rewarded when Gavin McCann's effort slammed back off the crossbar after 63 minutes.
Brunt slashed an opening well wide of the target shortly after but it was to be as close as either team were to get as the match drifted rather aimlessly to a close.
In one of the evening's other friendlies Portugal overcame five-times world champions Brazil 2-0 at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium thanks to goals from Simao Sabrosa and Chelsea centre-back Ricardo Carvalho.