Craig Bellamy's squad Set to Take on Anyone in World Cup Play-off Fixture

Wales football team celebration

The team has secured eight of their recent sixteen matches under manager Craig Bellamy

The team's focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they await learning their semi-final and possible final rivals.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final match on their own turf.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will embrace a match against whichever opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of people were wondering last night, 'should we really want Ireland because of that local feel?'. I think a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be incredible.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are competitive and Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so it will be challenging.

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

Possible Playoff Semifinal Rivals Reviewed

Wales are placed thirty-fourth in the world standings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania enjoyed a solid qualifying campaign, with their sole losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed 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 Red and Blacks's prominent names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the last 16 on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss finished the six-game campaign 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo feature ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but experienced a unforgettable loss against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his nation's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Ireland.

After taken just one point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure runner-up spot in their group in dramatic style.

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

Ireland are winless in their past 4 encounters with Wales, defeated in three of these, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.

Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee

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