Craig Bellamy's squad Set to Face Anyone in FIFA World Cup Playoff Fixture

The team's attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they await discovering their semi-final and potential final rivals.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualifying pool following a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will welcome a match against whichever team following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"Many people were wondering recently, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland because of that local feel?'. In my view many people didn't. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"It's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a capable team so they'll be challenging.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody right now and it doesn't matter, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed

Wales are placed thirty-fourth in the world standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania had a solid qualifying campaign, with their only losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without conceding a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's more notable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, Albania have not yet qualified for a World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each times.

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

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose single loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a team aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished 2 points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

As his nation's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

The veteran was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

After secured just one point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored 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 take second place in Group F in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past 4 encounters with Wales, losing 3 of those, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.