Jordan James insists a depleted Wales will not be overawed when they open their Nations League A campaign against Portugal in Lisbon on Thursday. The match, in Group A4, is scheduled for a 19:45 BST kick-off at the Estádio José Alvalade.
Wales go into the game short of several senior players. Joe Rodon and Dylan Lawlor were already absent from the squad, which has since been hit by the withdrawals of Karl Darlow, Nathan Broadhead and star man Harry Wilson. Rob Page’s side returned to the top tier of the Nations League by winning their League B group in 2024, and begin what looks like a demanding campaign against one of the strongest squads in the competition. They are also chasing a first win since last November’s World Cup qualifying victory over North Macedonia.
Portugal can call on a string of leading names, including Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, Nuno Mendes, Vitinha, Joao Neves and Bruno Fernandes, as well as 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo. “Obviously they’re the best players in the world at the end of the day, you can’t really sugarcoat it,” the Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder James said. “They’ve got Champions League winners, they’ve got these kinds of things. I think we’re always underdogs. We’re used to it, so hopefully we can use that to benefit ourselves. You can’t count us out. We’ve got a puncher’s chance at the end of the day and we’re going there to sort of cause an upset.”
James is likely to find himself in direct competition with a Portuguese midfield regarded by some as the best in world football. In Portugal’s most recent match, the 1-0 defeat by Spain in the round of 16 at this summer’s World Cup, the Paris St-Germain pair Neves and Vitinha lined up at the base of midfield with the Manchester United captain Fernandes ahead of them. The 21-cap James has faced comparable challenges before, having produced a standout performance when Wales beat a Croatia team featuring a midfield three of Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic in October 2023, a match he played at the age of 19. “I’ve still got Kovacic’s shirt on the game up in my room,” he said. “That was a really proud moment for me at such a young age to be able to compete against the best. It was a really proud moment and hopefully there will be many, many more.”
James says he does not get nervous about facing star names, though he admits to having felt “a bit star-struck” when he lined up for Leicester City against Frank Lampard’s Coventry City last season, the former England midfielder being his idol. Born 11 months after Ronaldo joined Manchester United for the first time in 2003, James describes the prospect of facing the former Real Madrid forward as “a bit mad”. He points to a career that has so far produced 146 international goals across 23 years. “We’re all trying to achieve the same thing, to be the best player in the world,” James said. “But you get those sort of aliens in a way that don’t seem human. You look at the Messis, the Neymars, the Ronaldos – they’ve just got that extra little quality where in big moments they turn up and can do it again and again and again. I think that’s the main thing. The longevity of how they’re able to do it is unbelievable.”