Craig Bellamy's squad Set to Take on Anybody in World Cup Playoff Draw
The team has secured 8 of their recent 16 matches with manager Craig Bellamy
The team's focus are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and possible final opponents.
After finished second in their qualification group thanks to a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final match on their own turf.
They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will relish a match against whichever opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.
"A lot of fans were saying recently, 'should we really want Ireland because of that local feel?'. I think many supporters didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.
"It's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and Albania are competitive and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so it will be difficult.
"However the sense is that we'll take anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Reviewed
Wales sit thirty-fourth in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.
The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualification campaign, with their sole losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed 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, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in the qualifiers with three goals.
Notably, Albania have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the last 16 on both times.
While Slovenia and Sweden endured torrid runs, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Swiss ended the six-game qualifiers 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss came at the hands of the group winners.
Kosovo feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a first international competition appearance.
They have never played the Welsh team.
Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a point more than the Welsh managed in their eight games, but nonetheless finished 2 points behind of Group H winners Austria.
They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the pair tied in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.
Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but experienced a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.
As his nation's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's key player.
The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with five goals.
And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.
Having taken just one point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir HallgrĂmsson's side surged into the play-offs 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 hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take second place in Group F in dramatic fashion.
Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one jersey his own.
Ireland are without a win in their past four meetings with the Welsh, defeated in three of these, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
