Wales Set to Face Anyone in World Cup Qualifying Draw
Wales have won 8 of their recent sixteen matches under coach Craig Bellamy
The team's attention are squarely on the upcoming World Cup playoff fixture as they await discovering their semi-final and potential final challengers.
After finished as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a decisive 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.
They will play against either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that match on 26 March.
Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will embrace a match against any team following 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 anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.
"A lot of supporters were asking recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. I think a number of people didn't. But for me, that could be incredible.
"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, naturally, they are a capable team so they'll be challenging.
"But you just feel that we'll take anyone at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Potential Play-off Semifinal Opponents Evaluated
Wales are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.
The Albanian national team had a impressive qualification campaign, with their sole losses suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a single goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's more notable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in the qualifiers with three goals.
Importantly, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.
While Slovenia and Sweden endured torrid runs, with both not managing to win a qualification match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.
The Swiss finished the six-match qualifiers three points clear of the Kosovans, whose single loss came at the hands of the pool winners.
The Kosovan squad feature ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden international competition appearance.
They have never played the Welsh team.
Bosnia were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and earned a points additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.
They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.
The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but did have a memorable loss against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.
Being his nation's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's standout player.
The veteran was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with five goals.
Lastly, we have Ireland.
After secured just one point from their first 3 matches, Heimir HallgrÃmsson's side surged into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to take second place in their group in dramatic style.
Key player Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one position his to keep.
Ireland are without a win in their last four meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of those, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.