Craig Bellamy's squad Ready to Challenge Whichever Opponent in World Cup Qualifying Fixture

The team's focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

They will play against either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will welcome a match against any team following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"Many people were wondering last night, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so it will be difficult.

"But you just feel that we'll take anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

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The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania had a impressive qualification run, with their only losses suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's recognizable players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the last 16 on both times.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult runs, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one loss came at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad feature former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia lost just once in qualifying, and claimed a point additional than Wales managed in their eight games, but nonetheless finished 2 points behind of Group H winners Austria.

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

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnians in four matches but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after losing.

As his country's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their opening three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.

Ireland are without a win in their last 4 encounters with Wales, defeated in three of these, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.