Wales Ready to Challenge Anyone in World Cup Qualifying Fixture
The team has won eight of their previous sixteen matches under manager Craig Bellamy
Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await learning their semi-final and potential final opponents.
Having finished second in their qualification pool following a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal match on home soil.
They will play against either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will welcome a match against whichever opponent after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.
"A lot of people were asking recently, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland because of that derby feel?'. I think a number of people were hesitant. But for me, that would be fantastic.
"It's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a capable team so they'll be challenging.
"But you just feel that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."
Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed
Wales sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.
The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualifying run, with their only losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a solitary goal.
Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's more notable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their goal chart in qualifying with 3 goals.
Notably, Albania have never earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on both times.
While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.
The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers three points ahead of Kosovo, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.
The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time top scorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.
They have never played Wales.
Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended two points behind of Group H winners Austria.
They were 13 minutes away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams tied in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.
Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four matches but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.
Being his nation's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.
The veteran was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.
Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.
After secured just one point from their first three matches, Heimir HallgrÃmsson's side stormed into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to secure second spot in their group in dramatic style.
Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his to keep.
Ireland are winless in their past 4 meetings with Wales, losing 3 of those, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
