The Welsh team Ready to Face Anyone in World Cup Play-off Fixture
The team has won 8 of their recent 16 matches with coach Craig Bellamy
Wales' attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await discovering their semifinal and possible final rivals.
After ended as runners-up in their qualification pool following a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal encounter on their own turf.
They will face either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will relish a tie against whichever opponent after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.
"A lot of supporters were asking last night, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that could be fantastic.
"It's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so they'll be difficult.
"However the sense is that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Possible Play-off Semi-final Opponents Evaluated
The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia 75th and the Kosovan side 84th.
The Albanian national team had a solid qualifying run, with their only defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without conceding a single goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's prominent names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.
Notably, the Albanians have never qualified for a World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the last 16 on each occasions.
As Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.
The Swiss ended the six-match campaign 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.
The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad aiming for a first major tournament appearance.
They have not yet faced Wales.
Bosnia lost only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished 2 points adrift of Group H winners Austria.
They were 13 minutes away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.
Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnian side in four matches but did have a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.
Being his country's all-time leading scorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.
The veteran was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.
And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.
Having secured just one point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second place in Group F in dramatic fashion.
Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his own.
Ireland are without a win in their last four encounters with Wales, losing three of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
