The Welsh team Set to Challenge Anyone in World Cup Qualifying Fixture
Wales have secured 8 of their previous 16 matches with coach Craig Bellamy
Wales' focus are squarely on the upcoming World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and possible final opponents.
Having ended as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a decisive 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on their own turf.
They will play against either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.
Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will embrace a match against whichever opponent following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.
"Many people were wondering recently, 'do we actually want Ireland because of that local feel?'. In my view many supporters were hesitant. But for me, that would be incredible.
"It's one of those, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a capable team so they'll be tough.
"But you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Possible Play-off Semifinal Rivals Assessed
Wales sit thirty-fourth in the world standings, with Albania 61st, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.
The Albanian national team had a solid qualification run, with their sole losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent names, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.
Importantly, Albania have not yet qualified for a World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on each times.
While Slovenia and Sweden endured poor campaigns, with each failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Switzerland finished the six-match qualifiers three points clear of the Kosovans, whose single loss was at the hands of the group winners.
Kosovo include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a first international competition appearance.
They have never faced the Welsh team.
Bosnia lost just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than Wales 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 securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams tied in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.
Wales have failed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after losing.
Being his nation's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker 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 five goals.
And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.
After taken only a single point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in Group F in dramatic fashion.
Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's revival while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his to keep.
Ireland are without a win in their last 4 meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of those, though James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.