T&T's senior men’s football team will step up preparations for next year's CONCACAF Gold Cup with an interesting international friendly against Wales at the Racecourse Ground in Wales, home venue of Wrexham AFC, on March 20.
The fixture has been confirmed for the venue which will mark a special return for T&T coach Dennis Lawrence, who played there for Wrexham between 2001-2006.
T&T met the 19th FIFA-ranked Wales once before in the build-up to the 2006 World Cup and lost 2-1 at Graz, Austria in May of that year. Lawrence played in that encounter in which current assistant coach Stern John netted for the Leo Beenhakker-coached team to open the scoring on 32 minutes. Gareth Bale also marked his debut as Wales’ youngest international by setting up their late winner.
Lawrence said, “We are delighted to have this opportunity to face Wales in the next international window in March. The match comes at an ideal time for us which is just over a couple months before the CONCACAF Gold Cup and will obviously be a very good test for our team.
"Wales have shown themselves to be a formidable opponent with good quality players under the management of Ryan Giggs and I expect the return of the Wales national team to Racecourse Ground to be special and both teams will be aiming to put on a competitive contest.”
This will be the first match of 2019 for Giggs’ side, in preparation for its first EURO 2020 qualifying match against Slovakia four days later in Cardiff.
Giggs said he is looking forward to returning to the Racecourse: “I’m delighted that we’re able to play at the Racecourse for the first time in 10 years. We thoroughly enjoyed taking the team there for an open training session in May. The support was incredible and further fuelled our ambition to host a match at the historic ground. T&T will prove an interesting test for us and will be great preparation ahead of the EURO 2020 qualifying campaign.”
The game follows international friendly matches against Iran, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Panama, Thailand, China, Peru, Ecuador, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Nicaragua among others within the past three years.