The Welsh team Ready to Take on Anybody in FIFA World Cup Playoff Fixture
The team has secured 8 of their recent 16 matches with manager Craig Bellamy
The team's sights are squarely on the upcoming World Cup play-off fixture as they await discovering their semi-final and possible final challengers.
After finished as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final match on their own turf.
They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.
Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will embrace a tie against any opponent after their most recent performance 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.
"Many people were asking last night, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. I think a number of people didn't. But personally, that could be incredible.
"So it's one of those, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Ireland, naturally, they're a very good team so it will be tough.
"However you just feel that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."
Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Evaluated
The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and the Kosovan side 84th.
The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualification campaign, with their only defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's prominent names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.
Importantly, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to reach the knockout stages on each times.
While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult campaigns, with both failing to win a qualification match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Switzerland finished the six-game campaign 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one defeat was at the hands of the group winners.
Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.
They have not yet faced Wales.
Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point more than the Welsh managed in their eight games, but nonetheless finished two points behind of their group winners Austria.
They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.
Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four matches but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.
Being his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.
The veteran was his squad's leading goalscorer in qualifying with 5 goals.
Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.
After taken just one point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir HallgrĂmsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second spot in Group F in thrilling style.
Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his to keep.
Ireland are without a win in their past 4 meetings with Wales, losing three of these, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.