Craig Bellamy's squad Ready to Challenge Anyone in FIFA World Cup Playoff Draw

Wales football team celebration

Wales have won eight of their previous 16 matches with manager Craig Bellamy

The team's attention are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

After ended as runners-up in their qualification pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final match on their own turf.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will relish a tie against any opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his approach is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.

"A lot of fans were asking recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that would be amazing.

"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they're a capable team so it will be tough.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Play-off Semi-final Rivals Reviewed

Wales are placed thirty-fourth in the FIFA standings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

Albania enjoyed a strong qualification run, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without conceding a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal chart in qualifying with three goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, not managing to reach the knockout stages on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Swiss ended the six-match qualifiers three points ahead of the Kosovans, whose single defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia lost only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than Wales achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless finished two points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnians in four attempts but did have a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite losing.

As his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in the qualifiers with five goals.

And finally, we have Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their first 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one jersey his to keep.

Ireland are winless in their past 4 meetings with the Welsh, defeated in three of those, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.

John Sanchez
John Sanchez

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