Craig Bellamy's squad Set to Take on Anyone in FIFA World Cup Qualifying Fixture

Wales football team celebration

Wales have secured 8 of their last 16 matches with manager Craig Bellamy

The team's attention are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final rivals.

After ended second in their qualification group following a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will host the semifinal match on their own turf.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a tie against any opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'give us anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"A lot of fans were asking last night, 'should we actually want Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be incredible.

"So it's one of those, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and Albania are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so they'll be challenging.

"But the sense is that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semi-final Rivals Reviewed

Wales sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification run, with their only losses coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured full points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's prominent names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the last 16 on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers three points clear of Kosovo, whose one defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have not yet faced Wales.

Bosnia lost only one time in qualifying, and earned a points more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but still finished two points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching 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.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnians in four matches but experienced a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his nation's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

The 39-year-old was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Ireland.

Having secured only a single 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 the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure runner-up place in Group F in thrilling style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their last four encounters with Wales, losing three of those, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.

Deanna Davis
Deanna Davis

A passionate gamer and writer with years of experience in strategy gaming and community building.