Craig Bellamy's squad Set to Take on Anyone in World Cup Qualifying Fixture
Wales have won 8 of their recent 16 matches with coach Craig Bellamy
Wales' attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await discovering their semifinal and potential final rivals.
Having ended second in their qualification pool thanks to a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final encounter on home soil.
They will meet either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a tie against any opponent after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.
"Many fans were saying last night, 'should we actually want Ireland because of that derby feel?'. I think many people were hesitant. But for me, that would be amazing.
"So it's one of those, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Ireland, naturally, they're a strong team so they'll be difficult.
"But you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Potential Playoff Semifinal Opponents Evaluated
The Welsh squad sit 34th in the world rankings, with Albania 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.
The Albanian national team enjoyed a strong qualifying campaign, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without conceding a solitary goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in the qualifiers with three goals.
It is worth noting, Albania have never earned a spot for a World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the last 16 on both occasions.
As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Switzerland ended the six-game campaign 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose single loss came at the hands of the group winners.
The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.
They have never faced Wales.
Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in qualifying, and claimed a points more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.
They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.
The Welsh have failed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.
Being his nation's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.
The 39-year-old was his team's leading goalscorer in qualifying with five goals.
And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.
After taken just one point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir HallgrĂmsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.
Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his side's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his own.
The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past four meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of those, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
