The Welsh team Ready to Take on Anybody in World Cup Playoff Fixture
The team has secured 8 of their last sixteen matches with coach Craig Bellamy
The team's sights are firmly on the upcoming World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final opponents.
Having finished second in their qualification group thanks to a commanding 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal match on home soil.
They will face either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a tie against whichever opponent after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.
"A lot of supporters were wondering recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that local feel?'. I think a number of supporters were hesitant. But personally, that would be amazing.
"It's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Ireland, naturally, they're a capable team so they'll be tough.
"However you just feel that we'll take anyone right now and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Evaluated
The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the world standings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.
Albania had a strong qualification campaign, with their only defeats coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.
Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's more notable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in the qualifiers with three goals.
It is worth noting, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on both occasions.
While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualification match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Switzerland ended the six-match qualifiers 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose one loss came at the hands of the group winners.
The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.
They have not yet played the Welsh team.
Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in qualifying, and claimed a point more than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.
They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the pair tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.
Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.
As his nation's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.
The veteran was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with five goals.
Lastly, we have Ireland.
Having taken only a single point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott scored both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to secure second place in their group in thrilling fashion.
Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his to keep.
Ireland are winless in their past four encounters with the Welsh, losing 3 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.
