Wales head coach Rhian Wilkinson has urged caution ahead of Tuesday's crucial World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final second leg against Albania, despite her side holding a slender 1-0 advantage from the first encounter.
The match, set for Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli, will decide which nation progresses toward a potential World Cup finals berth. A win or draw for Wales would see them advance, but Wilkinson has refused to treat the tie as a formality, pointing to the resilience Albania showed in the first leg despite being heavily outranked.
Wales sit 31st in the FIFA world rankings, some 37 places above Albania, yet the away leg in Shkoder proved far from comfortable. Wilkinson admitted her side were fortunate to escape with victory, describing Albania as a team capable of causing an upset through sheer determination.
"That Albanian team are right on the edge of something special because they really fight for everything," Wilkinson said. She added that senior players within the Welsh squad understand the danger posed by lower-ranked opposition that plays with nothing to lose. "When I speak to the older, more experienced players with Wales, they remember being that team that is ranked lower but is scrapping and fighting for everything and they get results because they catch people unaware. We're very aware of them - this is a dangerous Albanian team. We need to make sure we don't sit back and rest because they're going to be knocking on the door."
The two sides have met twice before in this qualifying campaign. Wales delivered a commanding 4-0 win over Albania in Wrexham during the group stage in April, but the reverse fixture proved much tighter, ending 1-0 to Wales. That narrow margin was repeated in the first leg of the play-off semi-final last Friday, reinforcing Wilkinson's belief that her side must raise their intensity to avoid a repeat scare.
"It will be a tough game," she said. "It's one where you better expect to be crawling off the field exhausted if you want to be walking away with a successful game."
Beyond the immediate stakes of reaching the play-off final, a win for Wales would also extend their unbeaten run to ten matches - a new national record, surpassing the nine-game streak set between November 2013 and August 2014. Wilkinson said she had not been aware of the milestone before being informed, insisting her focus remains on the team's performance rather than personal or historical achievements.
"What a wonderful record that would be for me to have, but more than anything, this is about the team showing up for each other and delivering to a standard we can be proud of," she said. "Win or lose, this is a very special team and I'll stand with them all day. But we know we want to be better for ourselves and equally for the fans."
Wilkinson's squad remains stretched by injuries, with nine regular players unavailable, including Olivia Clark, Hayley Ladd, Rhiannon Roberts, Ffion Morgan and Ceri Holland, the latter considered one of the team's most important attacking figures since the retirement of Jess Fishlock. The Wales boss expressed hope that several of the absentees could return to fitness in time for a potential two-legged play-off final in early December.
Should Wales advance, they are projected to face Norway, who took a 2-0 lead in their semi-final first leg away to Romania. Even a successful outcome there would not guarantee qualification, as Wales could still face an inter-confederation play-off in February for a place at the World Cup in Brazil.
For now, Wilkinson is keeping her focus narrow. "It's one step at a time," she said. "We don't get ahead of ourselves - it's about that peak in the distance that we're working towards."
Based on reporting from BBC Sport Football.