The Welsh team Ready to Face Anybody in World Cup Playoff Draw
Wales have won eight of their previous sixteen matches under coach Craig Bellamy
The team's focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they await discovering their semi-final and possible final rivals.
After finished second in their qualification pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will play the semi-final match on home soil.
They will meet either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will welcome a match against whichever opponent following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'bring on whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.
"Many fans were asking last night, 'do we really want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. I think many people didn't. But for me, that would be amazing.
"So it's one of those, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a strong team so they'll be challenging.
"However you just feel that we'll take anybody right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Assessed
Wales sit 34th in the world standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo 84th.
Albania enjoyed a strong qualification run, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a solitary goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's more notable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in the qualifiers with three goals.
It is worth noting, Albania have not yet qualified for a World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the last 16 on both times.
As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.
The Swiss ended the six-match campaign three points clear of Kosovo, whose one defeat came at the hands of the pool winners.
Kosovo feature ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a first major tournament appearance.
They have never played Wales.
Bosnia were defeated just once in qualifying, and earned a point more than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points behind 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 pair tied in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.
The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.
Being his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's star player.
The 39-year-old was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.
And finally, we have Ireland.
Having secured only a single point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir HallgrÃmsson's side surged into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take runner-up spot in their group in dramatic fashion.
Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his side's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.
Ireland are winless in their last four meetings with Wales, defeated in three of these, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
