Wales Women are set to break their attendance record for the second time in four weeks as they bid to reach the World Cup play-off final.
Gemma Grainger's Wales side host Bosnia-Herzegovina in a play-off semi-final at Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday, October 6 (7.15pm kick-off). If Wales win, they will face Switzerland away on Tuesday, October 11.
More than 13,500 tickets have now been sold for the crunch encounter, which will break the attendance record of 12,741 for a home Welsh women's football international which was set on September 6, when Wales held Slovenia to a 0-0 draw to progress to the play-off rounds for the first time.
Wales are bidding to reach the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which would mark their first appearance at a major tournament.
- You'll be able to follow live updates on Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina via WalesOnline from Thursday afternoon, or watch it live on BBC One Wales and iPlayer from 7pm.
Wales manager Grainger has named most-capped Welsh international Jess Fishlock in the squad after she missed the last two qualifiers due to a slight hamstring tear.
Given Fishlock is set to reunite with her midfield partners Sophie Ingle and Angharad James if she is fully match-fit, Ceri Holland is likely to move up-field to unite with striker Kayleigh Green, while Carrie Jones, who scored her first international goal in the penultimate qualifier, is expected to start up front in place of Natasha Harding, who is ruled out of selection due to personal reasons.
Interest in the team has exploded this campaign, with the attendance record against Slovenia last month more than doubling Wales' previous best of 5,445 in October 2021 when they beat Estonia 4-0, which came a month after just 1,700 supporters watched Wales' first home game of their qualifying campaign to beat Kazakhstan 6-0.
Wales and Manchester United defender Hayley Ladd said: "This is another historic, record-breaking week for Wales and, as a group of players and staff, we feel like this is our time.
"The whole campaign has felt significant. I think there's been a lot of weight put on each game and rightly so because we're at a stage in our history where, having built up to this point over the past 10 years, we're in a really good place.
"We've come close to qualifying in the past but never this close, just three wins away from that elusive first major tournament. We've had strong games but not got the results we've wanted over the course of the campaign. That has really lit a fire in us. We don't want a repeat of that history."
After a frustrated draw against Slovenia last month where neither side could break the deadlock, Wales will be hoping to unleash more of the attacking flair that Grainger has brought to the set-up since her appointment last year.
"I think under our manager Gemma Grainger we try to play more expansive football and we want to impose our style of play," Ladd said. "That covers fundamentals that we've had for a long time. Defensive resilience is something we pride ourselves on, but it's about every game delivering what we can. Hopefully in this Bosnia game there will be a lot more attacking and we can show that side of our game and our personalities a bit more."
How to the Women's World Cup play-offs work?
Nine teams finished runners-up in the group stages of European qualifying for the World Cup. Based on performances in qualifying, the three top-seeded teams (Iceland, Republic of Ireland and Switzerland) went straight through to the play-off finals.
The remaining six teams went into one-legged semi-finals: Wales face Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal host Belgium and Scotland play host to Austria.
As for the play-off finals, not all three play-off final winners will be guaranteed a spot at the World Cup, with only two of them securing automatic qualification. To determine that, they will be ranked according to qualifying performances and play-off results (they'll get three points for a play-off win, or one if the victory is via a penalty shootout).
The remaining team will have to play a third game in an inter-confederation play-off in New Zealand in February to try and reach the World Cup. Unfortunately for Wales, that third team looks likely to be them.
So it's looking like Wales have to win three matches to reach their first-ever major women's football tournament: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland and then to New Zealand, opposition TBC. The 10-team inter-confederation play-offs will also feature Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Cameroon, Senegal, Haiti, Panama, Chile, Paraguay, and Papua New Guinea.
2023 Women's World Cup play-off fixtures
Semi-finals, Thursday, October 6, UK kick-off times
- Portugal v Belgium 7pm
- Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina 7.15pm
- Scotland v Austria 7.35pm
Play-off finals, Tuesday, October 11
- Portugal or Belgium v Iceland TBC
- Scotland or Austria v Republic of Ireland TBC
- Switzerland v Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina 7pm
