Smith starts and Oyegoke scores while on international duty

Dons midfielder Matt Smith played 64 minutes for Wales on Thursday night during their 2-1 defeat to Belgium in the Nations League.

In a strong Group 4, coming up against Netherlands and Poland too, Wales have picked up just a point from five games and sit bottom of the pile, but could leapfrog Poland in the final game with victory on Sunday night.

Wales fell 2-0 down to Belgium in the first-half, courtesy of goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Mishy Batshuayi. Rob Page’s side rallied in the second-half though, and pulled one back five minutes after the restart through Kiefer Moore.

Page withdrew Smith and the goal-scorer just after the hour mark, replacing them with Joe Morrell and Gareth Bale but they could not find another goal to secure a point.

Smith is one of four Dons players called up on international duty this week. Daniel Oyegoke made his England U20s debut on Wednesday night, and found the back of the net with a fine solo effort against Chile. He was withdrawn from the 3-0 win after an hour.

Dawson Devoy and Josh Kayode could feature for the Republic of Ireland U21s tonight (Friday) when they take on Israel U21s in their UEFA European U21s Championship qualifier first leg at the Tallaght Stadium in Dublin, before the away leg next Tuesday night.