U21s with just two internationals this Autumn

The Gibraltar Under-21s will have to wait until the end of September before they resume international duties. Having already played eight of the ten matches they were scheduled to play in Group B, Gibraltar face the prospect of just two more matches to complete their Under-21 Championship qualifying group schedule.

Their first match this season will see them come up against Portugal away on September 26.

The team will then have to continue their travels, with their next match taking place in Azerbaijan.

Gibraltar's U21s have lost all eight of their matches, scoring just once and conceding 37 goals.

While their encounter with Portugal will be a difficult one, with the Portuguese side aiming to finish top of the group having won six of their seven matches and drawn one, Gibraltar will still be looking for points against Azerbaijan.

The latter sit directly above Gibraltar, with one win and three draws from the seven matches they have played.

Having put behind them the 11-0 defeat at the hands of Portugal and the 12-0 defeat by Scotland, Gibraltar have since done well to keep the results to more respectable levels. Both heavy defeats came in October, something the Gibraltar U21s will be hoping not to repeat in their forthcoming matches.

They subsequently lost 2-0 to Scotland before facing Azerbaijan, where they were defeated by a solitary goal last November. Another one-goal defeat, this time at the hands of Bulgaria, was then followed by a 5-0 defeat against Czechia.

The Under-21s will be hoping that the newly introduced Reserve League, which this past weekend saw Lincoln Red Imps field a near-full Gibraltar Eligible Player squad, will provide additional playing minutes for players ahead of their international matches. This has been one of the concerns in previous seasons, with the lack of senior league football, alongside the late start of the Intermediate League, meaning many players have had little or no competitive football under their belts before international matches in the early part of the season.

With the senior team also in action at the end of September, and Wiseman using a greater number of young players within his senior squad, competition for places in the Under-21s should once again be strong. However, this could also mean that the squad continues in its transitional phase as they approach their final two group matches.