The Welsh team Set to Take on Anybody in World Cup Qualifying Draw
Wales have secured 8 of their recent 16 matches with coach Craig Bellamy
The team's attention are squarely on the upcoming World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final challengers.
Having finished as runners-up in their qualification pool thanks to a commanding 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on their own turf.
They will face either Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.
Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will embrace a match against whichever team following their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.
"A lot of supporters were asking recently, 'do we actually want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many supporters were hesitant. But personally, that could be incredible.
"It's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Ireland, of course, they are a strong team so it will be challenging.
"But you just feel that we'll take anyone right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."
Potential Playoff Semi-final Opponents Evaluated
The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.
The Albanian national team had a strong qualification run, with their sole losses suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.
Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's prominent names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.
Importantly, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the last 16 on each occasions.
As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with both failing to win a qualification match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Swiss ended the six-match campaign three points clear of Kosovo, whose one defeat was at the hands of the group winners.
Kosovo feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a first international competition appearance.
They have never faced Wales.
Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.
They were 13 minutes away from clinching a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.
The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnians in four matches but did have a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.
As his nation's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.
The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with five goals.
And finally, we have Ireland.
Having secured just one point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back 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 arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second place in Group F in thrilling style.
Talisman Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's resurgence while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.
Ireland are winless in their last four encounters with Wales, losing three of these, although James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.