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

Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for learning their semi-final and possible final rivals.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualification pool following a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will embrace a match against any team following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'give us whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of supporters were asking last night, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But for me, that would be fantastic.

"It's one of those, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a strong team so it will be difficult.

"But the sense is that we'll take anyone right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Reviewed

Wales are placed 34th in the world rankings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania had a strong qualifying campaign, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's recognizable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in qualifying with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the knockout stages on both times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had poor campaigns, with both failing 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 ahead of Kosovo, whose one defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have not yet faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than Wales achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless finished two points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but did have a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's standout player.

The veteran was his team's top scorer in qualifying with five goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken only a single point from their opening three 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 the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure runner-up spot in Group F in dramatic style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's revival while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their past 4 encounters with Wales, losing three of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.