Wales Ready to Challenge Anybody in FIFA World Cup Playoff Draw
The team has won 8 of their recent sixteen matches with coach Craig Bellamy
The team's attention are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final opponents.
Having finished as runners-up in their qualification group following a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal match on home soil.
They will meet either the Albanian side, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will welcome a tie against whichever team after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'give us anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.
"A lot of people were wondering last night, 'do we really want Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. I think a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be amazing.
"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and Albania are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a strong team so it will be challenging.
"But the sense is that we'll take anybody right now and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."
Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Evaluated
The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the world standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.
Albania enjoyed a solid qualifying run, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of their group 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 part of the Red and Blacks's prominent players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in the qualifiers with three goals.
Notably, the Albanians have never qualified for a World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on both times.
As Slovenia and Sweden had torrid campaigns, with both failing to win a qualification match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.
The Swiss ended the six-match qualifiers 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.
The Kosovan squad feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.
They have never faced Wales.
Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a points additional than Wales achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless finished two points adrift of their group winners Austria.
They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the pair tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.
The Welsh have failed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.
Being his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.
The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with 5 goals.
Lastly, we have Ireland.
After secured just one point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott scored the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to secure runner-up place in Group F in dramatic fashion.
Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his side's revival while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his own.
Ireland are winless in their past 4 encounters with the Welsh, losing three of these, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
