Wales Prepared to Take on Anyone in FIFA World Cup Play-off Draw
The team has secured 8 of their last sixteen matches with coach Craig Bellamy
The team's attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final opponents.
Having finished second in their qualification group thanks to a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal match on their own turf.
They will meet either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that match on 26 March.
Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a match against whichever team following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his approach is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.
"A lot of supporters were saying recently, 'do we actually want Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But for me, that would be incredible.
"So it's one of those, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so it will be difficult.
"However you just feel that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Potential Play-off Semifinal Opponents Evaluated
Wales sit 34th in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo 84th.
The Albanian national team enjoyed a strong qualifying run, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed maximum points without conceding a solitary goal.
Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's recognizable players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in the qualifiers with three goals.
Notably, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the knockout stages on both times.
As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Switzerland ended the six-game campaign three points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one loss came at the hands of the pool winners.
Kosovo feature ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.
They have never faced the Welsh team.
Bosnia lost just once in qualifying, and claimed a points more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but still ended two points adrift of their group winners Austria.
They were 13 minutes away from clinching a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.
Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 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 unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.
The veteran was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with five goals.
Lastly, we have Ireland.
Having taken only a single point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to take second spot in Group F in thrilling style.
Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his side's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his to keep.
Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with Wales, losing 3 of these, although James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.