The Welsh team Ready to Take on Whichever Opponent in FIFA World Cup Qualifying Draw

Wales football team celebration

The team has secured 8 of their last 16 matches with coach Craig Bellamy

The team's sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await learning their semifinal and potential final opponents.

After ended as runners-up in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

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

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will embrace a tie against any team following their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of fans were asking recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. I think a number of people were hesitant. But personally, that could be amazing.

"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a strong team so they'll be tough.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

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The Welsh squad sit 34th in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

Albania enjoyed a strong qualification campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's recognizable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have never qualified for a World Cup, though they featured at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had poor campaigns, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose one loss came at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in qualifying, and claimed a points more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but still ended two points behind of Group H 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 tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 matches but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

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

The veteran was his squad's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to take second spot in Group F in thrilling style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his side's revival while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.

Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with Wales, losing 3 of those, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.

Alexis Anthony
Alexis Anthony

A passionate writer and performance coach dedicated to helping others unlock their full potential through actionable advice.