Craig Bellamy's squad Set to Challenge Anyone in FIFA World Cup Qualifying Draw

The team's attention are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await learning their semi-final and potential final opponents.

Having ended second in their qualification pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal match on home soil.

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will embrace a match against whichever team following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'give us anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"Many fans were asking last night, 'should we really want Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But for me, that could be incredible.

"It's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so they'll be tough.

"However the sense is 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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Wales sit thirty-fourth in the world standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a impressive qualification run, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured full points without allowing a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's more notable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal chart in the qualifiers with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the knockout stages on both times.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland finished the six-game qualifiers 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss was at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a team aiming for a first major tournament appearance.

They have not yet faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points behind of Group H winners Austria.

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

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but did have a unforgettable defeat against the Dragons as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite losing.

As his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

The veteran was his squad's leading goalscorer in qualifying with five goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs 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 final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to take second place in their group in thrilling fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one jersey his own.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with Wales, defeated in 3 of these, although James McClean shattered 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.