Wales Set to Challenge Anybody in World Cup Qualifying Fixture
The team has won eight of their last 16 matches with manager Craig Bellamy
The team's focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they await learning their semi-final and potential final rivals.
After ended as runners-up in their qualification group following a commanding 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final match on home soil.
They will face either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.
Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will welcome a tie against whichever team after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.
"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'bring on whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.
"Many people were asking last night, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many people didn't. But for me, that would be fantastic.
"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so they'll be challenging.
"But you just feel that we're prepared for anyone at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."
Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed
The Welsh squad sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.
The Albanian national team had a strong qualification campaign, with their only losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a single goal.
The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal chart 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 Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on each times.
As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor campaigns, with both not managing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.
The Swiss finished the six-game campaign 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose single defeat came at the hands of the group winners.
The Kosovan squad feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.
They have never played Wales.
Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished two points behind of their group winners Austria.
They were 13 minutes away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams tied in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.
The Welsh have failed to beat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.
Being his nation's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's star player.
The veteran was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with five goals.
Lastly, we have Ireland.
Having secured only a single point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.
Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second place in Group F in thrilling fashion.
Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his side's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one position his own.
Ireland are without a win in their last four meetings with the Welsh, losing three of those, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.
