Wales Ready to Face Whichever Opponent in World Cup Qualifying Draw
Wales have secured 8 of their last 16 matches under manager Craig Bellamy
The team's attention are squarely on the upcoming World Cup playoff draw as they await learning their semi-final and potential final opponents.
Having finished as runners-up in their qualifying group thanks to a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final match on their own turf.
They will play against either the Albanian side, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will embrace a match against whichever opponent after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.
"Many fans were asking recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.
"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a strong team so it will be challenging.
"But the sense is that we'll take anyone right now and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."
Possible Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed
Wales sit 34th in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.
The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualification campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's more notable players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.
Notably, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the last 16 on each occasions.
As Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult runs, with each failing to win a qualification match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.
The Swiss ended the six-game campaign 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.
The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.
They have not yet played Wales.
Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in qualifying, and claimed a points additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still ended two points adrift of their group winners Austria.
They were 13 minutes away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.
The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.
As his country's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's star player.
The 39-year-old was his squad's leading goalscorer in qualifying with 5 goals.
And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.
Having taken only a single point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure second spot in their group in thrilling fashion.
Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his own.
The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past four meetings with Wales, losing 3 of these, although James McClean shattered the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.