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

The team's attention are firmly on the upcoming World Cup playoff draw as they await discovering their semi-final and potential final opponents.

Having ended second in their qualification group thanks to a commanding 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a match against any opponent following their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many fans were saying recently, 'should we actually want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. I think many people didn't. But for me, that could be amazing.

"It's one of those, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and Albania are not bad and Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"However you just feel that we'll take anyone right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Possible Play-off Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

Wales are placed thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualifying run, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without conceding a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's prominent names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, Albania have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to reach the knockout stages on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Swiss finished the six-game campaign 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss came at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo feature former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia lost just once in qualifying, and earned a points more than Wales managed in their eight games, but nonetheless ended 2 points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the pair drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 matches but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

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

The 39-year-old was his squad's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with five goals.

And finally, we have Ireland.

After taken only a single point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take second spot in their group in dramatic style.

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

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with the Welsh, defeated in three of those, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.