Wales Ready to Face Anyone in World Cup Play-off Fixture
Wales have won 8 of their last sixteen matches with manager Craig Bellamy
The team's sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.
Having finished as runners-up in their qualification group following a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal match on home soil.
They will meet either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will embrace a match against any opponent following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.
"A lot of supporters were wondering recently, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many people didn't. But for me, that could be amazing.
"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, of course, they're a capable team so it will be tough.
"However the sense is that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."
Possible Playoff Semifinal Rivals Evaluated
The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the FIFA rankings, with Albania 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo 84th.
The Albanian national team enjoyed a strong qualification campaign, with their only losses coming 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 among the Albanian squad's more notable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in qualifying with 3 goals.
Notably, the Albanians have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the last 16 on each occasions.
As Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with both failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign three points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss was at the hands of the group winners.
The Kosovan squad feature ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a first international competition appearance.
They have not yet faced the Welsh team.
Bosnia were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a point more than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still ended two points behind of their group winners Austria.
They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the pair drew in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.
Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 matches but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after losing.
As his nation's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.
The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with five goals.
And finally, we have Ireland.
After taken just one point from their opening three qualifiers, Heimir HallgrĂmsson's side surged into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott scored both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take runner-up place in Group F in thrilling style.
Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's revival while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his to keep.
The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their last four meetings with the Welsh, defeated in three of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
