The Welsh team Set to Challenge Anybody in World Cup Playoff Draw
The team has won eight of their last 16 matches with coach Craig Bellamy
The team's attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and possible final rivals.
After ended as runners-up in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – the side will host the semifinal encounter on home soil.
They will play against either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will embrace a match against whichever team after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'bring on whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.
"Many supporters were wondering last night, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many people didn't. But for me, that would be fantastic.
"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they're a very good team so they'll be tough.
"However you just feel that we're prepared for anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."
Possible Playoff Semifinal Opponents Assessed
The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.
Albania had a impressive qualifying campaign, with their only defeats coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's prominent players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.
It is worth noting, the Albanians have never qualified for a World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the knockout stages on both occasions.
While Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult runs, with both not managing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.
The Switzerland finished the six-match qualifiers three points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss was at the hands of the group winners.
The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.
They have not yet faced the Welsh team.
Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in qualifying, and claimed a points more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished two points adrift of Group H winners Austria.
They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a place 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 won the group.
The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians 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 the defeat.
As his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.
The 39-year-old was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.
Lastly, we have Ireland.
After taken only a single point from their first 3 matches, Heimir HallgrÃmsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to secure runner-up spot in Group F in dramatic fashion.
Talisman Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his side's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.
Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of those, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
