Craig Bellamy's squad Prepared to Take on Whichever Opponent in World Cup Qualifying Draw
Wales have secured 8 of their previous 16 matches with manager Craig Bellamy
The team's focus are squarely on the upcoming World Cup playoff fixture as they await discovering their semi-final and possible final rivals.
After ended second in their qualification pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final encounter on home soil.
They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.
Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will welcome a match against any opponent after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'give us anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.
"A lot of fans were asking last night, 'do we really want Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.
"It's that type of situation, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and Albania are competitive and Ireland, naturally, they are a capable team so it will be challenging.
"But the sense is that we'll take anybody right now and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."
Potential Playoff Semifinal Rivals Assessed
Wales sit 34th in the world standings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.
The Albanian national team had a solid qualification campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who secured full points without conceding a single goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's recognizable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in the qualifiers with three goals.
Importantly, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the last 16 on each times.
While Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with both failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.
The Switzerland finished the six-game qualifiers three points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one defeat was at the hands of the group winners.
The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a first international competition appearance.
They have never played the Welsh team.
Bosnia were defeated just once in qualifying, and earned a point more than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of Group H 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 last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.
Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.
Being his nation's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.
The 39-year-old was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.
Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.
Having secured just one point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged 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 scoring a triple – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure runner-up place in Group F in thrilling style.
Talisman Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.
The Republic of Ireland are winless in their past 4 meetings with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.